The contribution of some economic diversification sectors in the first year of Oman’s 10th Five-Year Development Plan has witnessed a remarkable increase in 2021, a media report said.

Oman’s tenth Five-Year Development Plan, which started on January 1, 2021, targets six priority sectors – manufacturing, transport and logistics, tourism, fisheries, mining, and education – to enhance the economic diversification of the country.

"Many economic diversification sectors targeted in the 10th Five-Year Development Plan (2021-2025) achieved remarkable growth rates (at current prices) between the 2021 target and the actual as of June 2021," Times of Oman reported, citing a Ministry of Economy statement.

In manufacturing sector the actual growth at the end of June 2021 was 34.2 per cent where the targeted growth rate 8.7 per cent for 2021.

The growth registered in the transport storage and communication sector at the end of June 2021 was 15.8 per cent while the expected growth was 7.9 per cent only. In the fisheries sector, 21.9 per cent was the actual growth at the end of June 2021, and the targeted growth rate was 9 per cent. The mining sector witnessed growth by 7.7 per cent in 2021.

"In 2021, a number of development projects were implemented to complement the infrastructure and improve the quality of services provided to citizens in various governorates,” the ministry said.

“The appropriations in the development budget for the projects under - implementation, as of August 2021, increased by 5.7 per cent as a result of approvals for new projects.”

Meanwhile, manufacturing sector is one of the main contributors to the Omani economy. However, it faced stiff challenges in 2020 due to the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, the projects made good progress in 2020 due to huge efforts made by the projects’ owners and teams. As a result, the manufacturing dashboard, which contains 23 projects and initiatives, achieved 61 per cent in 2020. In addition, its contribution to the GDP reached 10.8 per cent in 2020, according to the Economic Diversification Report 2020, published by Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit.

One of the projects that have seen significant progress is Al Bashayer Meat, which is one of the major projects under the umbrella of Oman Food Investment Holding Company (OFIC). The company aims to operate a fully integrated red meat project. This will be achieved by importing live animals from trusted sources; fattening them by providing the necessary feed for their natural and healthy growth; and slaughtering them in the company’s state-of-the-art abattoir.

Moreover, located in Salalah Free Zone, OQ LPG project is a mega project intended to extract over 300,000 tonnes annually of propane, butane and condensate from the Rabab Harweel field and central processing plant. It has been initiated to optimise the gas value chain, as the plant will process approximately 8.8 million standard cubic meters per day (smcd) of gas and will produce around 304 kilo tonnes per annum (KTA) of LPG products.

Another mega project in manufacturing is Liwa Plastics Industries Complex (LPIC), which is a first-of-its-kind project in Oman, with a total investment of $6.7 billion. It is located in Sohar Industrial Port and will enable the country to support plastics downstream industry.

Logistics

Logistics sector was able to utilise the Sultanate’s developed infrastructure. Omani ports showed excellent performance, efficiency and reliability, as the general cargo handled from January to the end of December 2020 reached around 54 million tonnes, and the number of containers that were handled reached around 5.2 million, with an increase of 5 per cent compared to 2019.

Khazaen Project is one of the most significant integrated economic cities in the Sultanate. It is strategically located in the Wilayat of Barka between Sohar Port, Muscat Airport and Muscat City, and being developed over 51.6 million sq m.