Late in August, Chinese investors have been planning to develop a $98M carpet and blanket factory in the Eastern Port of Duqm. This company will use synthetic materials that have been sourced from petrochemical processing.This plant is a part of a wider China-Oman Industrial Park, which authorities are targeting an investment of $3.2BN during the first stage. This plant will include facilities for the manufacture of solar panels, building materials, pipes, petrochemicals and other products. The reason Duqm has been selected as a site for larger building materials complex is, so it can be further developed by local company Assarain Concrete Products. The plant will be developed on a 60,000-sq-mt plot that is close to the city's port and will produce concrete blocks for construction purpose with tiles, paving slabs and kerbstones. These will be used in a series of infrastructure projects around the region.
In all, manufacturing grew by 17.8% YOY in Q1 in 2018, as per data issued by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) in August. The manufacturing sector has outstripped the overall GDP growth of 6.5% for the period helping drive broader growth in industrial sector that showed slated growth of 2.6%. There was strong performance build of expansion of 9.2% in 2017 as per Central Bank of Oman that lifted the sector's share of non-oil GDP from 43.3% in 2016 to 48.6% last year.
2017 saw 9.6% GDP growth in manufacturing, which went down on the 10.2% average recorded over by earlier two years. This was covered due to contributions by the earlier two sectors.
The government plans to quicken the influx of private investments that further supports privatization. July saw plans to develop and finalize the sale of over $1.8BN worth of state enterprises by 2021, according to reports by government's Implementation Support and Follow-Up Unit. This body is in charge ofoverseeing and realization of economic policy.Moves to boost the manufacturing industry is in line with recommendations in the IMF's latest report on Oman that called for the Omani Government to promote greater private sector involvement and to support growth and diversification for giving an impetus to the economy.