In its push for expanding the non-oil base and making the private sector an important player in the national economy, Oman plans to further liberalise its economy, Minister of Commerce and Industry Maqbool bin Ali Sultan has said.

Oman will “lure” foreign investors, he said, and if the targets of the seventh five-year development plan for 2006-10 are to be realised, Muscat will have to get serious about it. The plan calls for the private sector to contribute 46 per cent of the total investment of RO13.1 billion ($34 billion) projected for the plan period and help make possible an annual average growth rate of three per cent in the national economy.
According to the five-year plan’s goals, industries based on natural gas should register an annual growth rate of 14.5 per cent. This is not considered far-fetched as already the Sohar Industrial Port has world-scale facilities built or under construction. The Sohar hub will be the main driver of that growth. Nearly $11 billion has been earmarked for infrastructure, industrial and logistics facilities, and the area is awaiting its first large-scale exports.
During the next five years, the private sector is expected to invest RO1.4 billion in gas-based industrial projects, RO958 million in tourism projects, RO896 on oil projects and RO2.7 billion on residential and other projects.
Oman’s industrial sector probably grew by 18.9 per cent during 2005 against 17.5 per cent in the previous year with the manufacturing sector contributing 9.1 per cent to the GDP against 8.5 per cent in 2004. Under Oman’s Vision 2020, the Sultanate’s industrial sector has to contribute 15 per cent to the GDP by that year.  Large gas-based plants in the Sohar Industrial Port area including ones related to metals, petrochemicals and the refinery could well make that possible.
Even as Sohar Industrial Port has been hogging much of the limelight, the government is keen it realises its vision of developing another massive hub in the south of the country, at Salalah. A top-grade port is already in operation and has been commercially successful. But its full potential will be realised when a projected free zone in Salalah takes shape. Salalah Port also has aspirations to be a leading transshipment hub, just as Dubai has been in neighbouring UAE. Oman is investing around $356 million to nearly double the container handling capacity of Salalah Port. Yet another commercial port is to be built in Al Duqm in the state’s southeast at an investment of $400 million. The government obviously visualises that industrialisation will become more widespread and is creating the infrastructure before hand. With greater maritime trade, ship repairs are becoming an attractive business line and Duqm will have two drydocks, for which Daewoo has been commissioned to provide consultancy and design services.
An important objective of the large industrial hubs planned for Sohar and Salalah is the development of downstream industries. Most of these will be small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As if in anticipation of that development, the Sultanate’s largest bank, BankMuscat, recently launched Al Wathbah, a suite of lending solutions, to help promoters of SMEs. Al Wathbah is offered for six product categories, namely capital working finance, equipment finance, receivables finance, import finance, contract finance and credit card receivables finance. The bank will also be offering advisory services.