Oman’s Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) has announced that the gross investment volume in its various industrial cities surged to RO6.6 billion ($17 billion) by the end of 2019 marking a growth rate of 1.54 percent compared to the previous year.
The number of investment projects in the industrial cities reached 2,313 projects in 2019, of which 1,759 are existing projects, 285 are under construction and 269 projects have been allocated with spaces.
Madayn is working towards developing Madayn Vision 2040 to be along the lines of Oman Vision 2040, remarked Hasan bin Marhoon Al Marhoon, the Director-General of Planning and Business Development.
“Through the development of Madayn Vision 2040, we aim to establish world-class business cities while maintaining the Omani identity,” said Al Marhoon.
“Madayn aims at emphasizing its role in promoting comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development through enhancing public-private partnership in order to develop and operate integrated business cities,” he noted.
Emphasizing its commitment towards Omanisation, Al Marhoon said around 34 percent of the 61,213-strong workforce recorded last year were locals.
According to him, the growth amount in the total volume of investments in all the industrial cities amounted to RO101 million last year.
Suhar Industrial City had the highest increase in total investments during 2019 compared to the other industrial cities of Madayn, he added.
Al Marhoon pointed out that the total investments in Suhar Industrial City surged by RO24 million, bringing the cumulative volume of the investments in 2019 to RO2.2 billion compared to RO2.1 million at the end of 2018.
This increase is attributed to the investments of companies that were introduced in Suhar Industrial City during 2019, he said.
The number of workers increased by 1,143 workers last year compared to 2018, marking a growth rate of 2%. Al Rusayl and Suhar Industrial Cities account for nearly two-thirds of the total workforce within Madayn’s industrial cities.
The percentage of the workforce in the two industrial cities is 35% and 28% respectively, he added.
A total of 102 projects have been localized during 2019 at various stages of implementation. Of these, 76% are existing projects, 12% have been allocated with spaces, and 12% are under construction.
These projects vary in terms of activities, as 58% are industrial projects, 20% commercial projects, 14% service and logistical projects, 7% are technical and 1% is housing and real estate projects.
Among the Madayn industrial cities, Al Buraimi topped the list in terms of the total number of projects. By 2019-end, the number of projects in Al Buraimi Industrial City rose to 508, and is followed by Suhar Industrial City with 416 projects.
Al Marhoon said Madayn had concluded contracts with a number of entities to achieve its plan to provide the needs of industrial cities to the highest standards.
These deals are related to projects of establishing facility buildings in Nizwa Industrial City, Al Mazunah Free Zone, Suhar Industrial City, Al Rusayl Industrial City, and Samail Industrial City.
TradeArabia News Service
15/09/2020
