Companies from around the region have expressed their intention to invest $2.15 billion in Duqm, in sectors including housing, tourism, fisheries, commercial services and chemicals, Reuters quoted Saleh Hamood Ali al-Hasni, the executive in charge of handling investment applications in Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm.
According to Reuters, Hasni also said the zone was looking at several options to raise money, including a possible bond issue and a loan from international banks, and had started generating fee income that would help it to finance itself.
Reuters quoted the official data saying that the total state investment spending has increased to 5.5 percent from a year earlier to $7.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2015, even as the government ran a budget deficit of RO4.07 billion.
The report says, Oman is spending billions of dollars to develop the area around the Duqm into a sprawling business zone, aiming to attract companies that will create tens of thousands of jobs.
Duqm is the biggest single economic project in the history of Oman. With the onset of the project, Duqm Special Economic Zone will include an oil refinery, a petrochemical complex, manufacturing operations and warehousing and logistics facilities. Along with that a fish processing district will become the focus of Oman’s fishing industry.