“The non-petroleum sector continued to attract the attention of policy authorities, reflecting the importance of this sector for economic diversification and sustainable growth in the economy. The concerned authorities are pushing non-petroleum activities through improving the investment climate, facilitating trade with countries in GCC region and outside, promoting tourism, and so on,” the Central Bank stated in its 2017 Annual Report.
The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report ranked Oman 3rd among the GCC countries and 71st globally. The various initiatives implemented under the 9th Development Plan, which has been drawn from the Vision 2020, made rapid progress in 2017 with a tangible contribution to the economic diversification in the economy.
“The Vision 2020 aims at steering the Sultanate towards a more diversified and stable economy by creating favourable economic conditions. The government intends to use hydrocarbon revenues to achieve economic diversification, but at the same time for providing basic public services and improving human capital. Non-petroleum activities made good progress in the last few years due to diversification efforts and various other policy measures undertaken to nurture the private-sector led growth in the economy. The rebound in petroleum activities also contributed to the non-petroleum activities, reflecting strong inter-linkages,” a report by the CBO said.
The National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification (Tanfeedh), an action-oriented programme formulated to bolster economic activities in non-oil sector to achieve the goals of the 9th Development Plan, continued to concentrate on five sectors: (i) manufacturing, (ii) tourism, (iii) logistics, (iv) fisheries and (v) mining for identifying and implementing various projects and initiatives with a monitorable action plan. Besides, the finance and labour act as facilitators for implementing policy and programmes in the aforementioned sectors.
Under the Tanfeedh plan, a total of 121 projects and initiatives would be taken up, which are expected to generate significant investment opportunities with the private sector bringing in the major share. It is anticipated that around 30,000 jobs for Omanis would be created through this by 2020. Furthermore, the Vision 2040 also continues to foster economic diversification to develop a more diversified, globally integrated and competitive economy for ensuring a sustainable growth over the long-run with increased participation of the private sector.
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