Vijaya Kumar, CEO of KR Infrastructure Group exudes confidence that the slight increase in oil prices, planned investments in Duqm and commissioning of the new airport will provide a fillip to the economy
What in your opinion will be the big trends of 2018 in Oman and globally?
The macroeconomic situation seems to be getting marginally better, thanks to the slight increase in oil prices. This coupled with planned investments in Duqm and commissioning of the new airport will provide a fillip to the economy.
I expect the government spending to continue to be on prudent lines but certainly with more hotels opening their doors in 2018, we are likely to see the larger influx of tourists and an upward growth in tourism and related businesses.
What is your future outlook for Oman’s Infrastructure sector?
Thanks to the Tanfeedh initiatives, planned diversification away from the oil economy seems to have kicked in with all earnestness. We see new investments in manufacturing coming up in Sohar and focus on fisheries, mining and hospitality sectors would also lead to new business opportunities and employment generation.
What is KR – Infrastructure’s outlook for 2018?
KR Infrastructure Group operates in very widely diversified areas and as such we expect the negatives to be balanced by the positives. The situation on the payment front is however what could be a dampening factor across all businesses.
What were the highlights of 2017 for KR-Infrastructure? And what were the factors that helped the company do well?
The biggest challenge for our Infrastructure Group in 2017 was the issue of delayed payments from various customer segments. While retail demand was sluggish for a few of our product groups, the demand in the project segments caused the retail drop to be offset to a certain extent. We launched new products and services in the areas of marine infrastructure, waste management and medical Infrastructure. The ‘Never Say Die’ attitude of our team members has been the single most important factor in our meeting the challenging environment of 2017.
What are the new initiatives/areas that KR- Infrastructure plans to foray into in 2018?
Rather than taking on any new initiatives, we would much rather try to build on our capabilities and competencies in addressing areas which we have got into in the last few years. These areas closely mirror where the investments are being made. In each of these areas, we have been able to identify new products and services and in the coming years will be investing more to be adequately able to service these new requirements.