Patronised by the Vocational Education Department and the Directorate General of Labour Welfare under the Ministry of Manpower, and organised by Oman International Trade and Exhibitions, the fair will once again give students, graduates and other professionals from Oman an exclusive insight into the career openings and development opportunities available at major companies and entities across the…
For the nations of the GCC, the drop in oil prices highlighted something many already knew: there is a pressing need for economic diversification and to further engage with global partners across different markets. To this end, countries in the region have made efforts to expand their international role and reach in recent years, with trade deals and investments being pursued in the US, China…
The number of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) operating in the GCC has grown significantly in the last decade. The value of these SWFs – created to invest and manage the huge sums flowing into the region from hydrocarbons sales – stood at $2.9trn in December 2017, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), or 38.3% of the global total. Turning A Corner With oil prices remaining…
For the nations of the GCC, the drop in oil prices highlighted something many already knew: there is a pressing need for economic diversification and to further engage with global partners across different markets. To this end, countries in the region have made efforts to expand their international role and reach in recent years, with trade deals and investments being pursued in the US, China…
The number of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) operating in the GCC has grown significantly in the last decade. The value of these SWFs – created to invest and manage the huge sums flowing into the region from hydrocarbons sales – stood at $2.9trn in December 2017, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), or 38.3% of the global total. Turning A Corner With oil prices remaining…
From the late 1990s until 2014 Oman’s fiscal balance had consistently remained in positive territory, according to IMF figures, with the sole exception of a small deficit of 0.3% of GDP registered in 2009. However, amid a decline in international oil prices towards the end of 2014, public finances moved into the red for the year, to the tune of 1.1% of GDP. As the oil price slide picked up…
A May 2017 survey published by Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information found that 56% of Oman’s residents have accounts or deposits with banks operating in the sultanate, and this figure grows to 68% when only Omani citizens are counted. Omanis benefit from good access to financial infrastructure. The number of bank branches stood at 16.3 per 100,000 people in 2016, above…
Equity listings activity in the sultanate has been muted in recent years. After having steadily risen in number from two in 2012 to four in 2014, only one public offering took place in 2015 – though the listing, of Phoenix Power Company, was the largest in recent years, raising OR563.1m ($1.5bn), more than double the combined value of all initial public offerings (IPOs) over the previous…
There are approximately $2bn worth of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the planning or implementation phase in Oman, according to research by Middle East Economic Digest published in October 2017. The sultanate pioneered the regional development and use of such projects in the utilities sector in particular, and PPPs now account for the bulk of electricity generated in the country and…
The telecoms market experienced a continued rise in revenue and investments in 2016, with growth rates of approximately 5.6% and 30.9%, respectively. Total mobile subscribers increased to 6.86m with a growth of roughly 3.3%. Ooredoo saw an uptick of 3.9% in mobile and fixed customers, while Omantel recorded a growth of 7.4% in subscribers. Analysis Of Business Omantel’s share price declined…
