Investments made easy

Oman has made qualitative strides in making the procedures of investment easy in the country.

It has made the environment conducive for local and foreign investments by providing ample opportunities for development of business of all types. It is encouraging growth and advancement by facilitating all sorts of help through the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Promotion of Investment.

The ministry opened a lounge for investment services and named it as ‘Invest in Oman,’ on February 27 under the auspices of Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, Minister of Finance.

This lounge provides all information, data, statistics and facilities required by investors. It has experts who do all types of work required for licensing of projects worth over RO 1 million. It also provides auditors and accountants who specialise in work of preparation of studies and research.

This is the facility which will help in listing projects and investment opportunities in future. Furthermore, it will cater all required details and data of all the projects and their economic returns based on studies. It will have an online platform to do the follow up of all the projects and provide all information required by an investor for each of the projects.

Under this mechanism, more than 16 agencies have been linked online to provide various types of licensing services. Otherwise, in the past it was a big hassle to reach out to all these agencies separately to complete the procedure.

Almost all the facilities are provided under one roof. This is highly reassuring for investment. The government organisations which are brought together under the mechanism and the facility are: the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance; Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones; the Ministry of Education; Royal Oman Police; Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit; the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism; the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources; the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning; and the Ministry of Transport Communications and Information Technology. It was a huge task to connect each of them under this mechanism with the sole objective of serving investors. This is a model worth following in many other areas related to economic development.

Now, one can say that the ball is now in the court of the investors and those interested in it. Now all the hurdles have been removed. One can hope that money would be pumped into the national economy with more confidence and satisfaction.

There is no doubt that the efforts made for providing a suitable environment for investment are in harmony with the services made to the investors. All possible steps have been taken so that the journey is easy, comfortable and satisfying. They will boost the confidence of those who will put in their money and build their trust in the system and policies of the government.

The ‘Invest in Oman’ lounge is being seen as a dream coming true to attract investments without any hassle. All laws, rules and regulations have been formulated to attract local and foreign investments guaranteeing growth and development. No discrimination has been made between any segments of the investors.

All these preparations were massive work. It took a long time because the idea was to provide everything required by an investor under one roof without any effort. The facility is up to the mark in terms of all standards and specifications.

This new facility has created hope that investors would not have any problem in their pursuit for economic growth and development. Now, it is expected that every investor's mission to accomplish their goals will be fulfilled without any obstacle.