Muscat: The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates – Madayn celebrated yesterday (Tuesday) the launch of Madayn Vision 2040 at Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre under the patronage of His Excellency Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion.

Madayn Vision 2040 aims at creating world-class business cities while maintaining the Omani identity to contribute to economic growth.

The vision revolves around promoting comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development through strengthening Public-Private Partnership, developing and operating business cities with integrated services, and keeping pace with the variables, and adopting the best solutions and technologies to meet business requirements while conforming to the environmental standards.

Competitiveness

Speaking at the ceremony, His Excellency Dr. Saleh bin Said Masan, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion for Commerce and Industry, and Chairman of Madayn’s board of directors, stated that Madayn Vision 2040 comes in implementation of the directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik for the government bodies to develop long-term strategies and plans in pursuance of Oman Vision 2040.

“Madayn Vision 2040 is a result of efforts that lasted more than a year of analysing the vision, national priorities and strategies of OmanVision2040 in order to build institutional goals that contribute to enhancing the Sultanate’s competitiveness,” he said, adding: “We aim through the outputs of Madayn Vision 2040 to enhance the Sultanate’s competitiveness in attracting foreign investments, localising domestic investments and enhancing industrial production. The vision also focuses on increasing Omani exports, providing job opportunities, and strengthening the components of comprehensive economic and social development in the Sultanate’s various governorates.”

Throughout its 2011-2020 plan, Madayn was able to attract and localise investments valued at more than RO 3.3 billion, that is to say it has achieved more than 72% of the target value. This brings the accumulated investment volume in Madayn’s industrial cities to more than RO 6.8 billion. In terms of the workforce, Madayn has achieved more than 70% of the target as it provided more than 40,000 job opportunities during the ten-year plan. “The total number of the workforce was 22,000 by the end of 2010 compared to more than 62,000 towards the end of 2020,” Masan informed. By the end of 2020, the Omanisation rate has touched nearly 35% with more than 21,000 Omani working in Madayn’s various industrial cities today.

With regard to the number of projects, Madayn came close to achieving 85% of the target as it was able to localise more than 1,650 projects in various sectors in its ten-year plan. Today, the number of these projects is approaching 2,400.

During the same period, Madayn continued with its plans to complete the infrastructure and superstructure, as well as developed Samail Industrial City as the first economic city in Oman to be fully developed in one phase.

Madayn has also worked on developing phase 7 of Suhar Industrial City on an area of approximately 8 million sqm, expansion project of Raysut Industrial City, phases 1 and 2 of Al Mazunah Free Zone, development works in Al Buraimi, Sur and Nizwa Industrial Cities, and completing the masterplan of Knowledge Oasis Muscat.

Moreover, Madayn, in partnership with the private sector, has implemented workforce townships in Al Rusayl, Suhar and Raysut Industrial Cities, in addition to Facility Buildings in Knowledge Oasis Muscat and Suhar Industrial City. Work is underway and is already advanced in developing the Facility Buildings in Samail and Al Rusayl Industrial Cities, and Al Mazunah Free Zone.

Masan added that in the past ten years, Madayn achieved constant growth as seen in its indicators in spite of the fluctuations witnessed by the local, regional and global economic arenas and their impact on all sectors. “Madayn today represents part of an integrated national economic system that seeks at developing and operating advanced world-class business cities along the lines of the best global models. Furthermore, Madayn has fully restructured its legislation and operational processes. The issuance of Royal Decree no. 32/2015 has granted Madayn more powers in issuing licenses and permits and enhanced its role in regulating and supervising the industrial cities,” he stressed.

Madayn Vision 2040

On his part, Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, CEO of Madayn, pointed out that Madayn Vision 2040 is derived from the national priorities and goals of Oman Vision 2040 for the coming period. “Madayn Vision 2040 outlines 26 institutional goals and policies, through which we intend to implement 42 programmes and 384 scheduled projects. Through this vision, we aim at achieving RO 15 billion of investment volume, and localising projects that shall touch 10,000 projects in various fields towards the end of the plan. Of these projects, we aim at localising 6,500 industrial projects (factories) that shall provide around 270,000 job opportunities,” Al Hasani elaborated.

He added that the key projects of Madayn Vision 2040 include completing the development of the industrial cities in Sur, Al Buraimi, Suhar, Raysut, Nizwa, Al Mazunah Free Zone and Knowledge Oasis Muscat. “New industrial cities are also coming up in Ibri, Thumrait, Shinas, Al Mudhaibi and Al Rawdah, in addition to specialised industrial complexes such as the plastic industries complex in Suhar Industrial City, precision manufacturing and nanotechnology in Sur Industrial City, and pharmaceutical industries complex and food industries complex in all the industrial cities, as well as metal works industries in several industrial cities,” Al Hasani informed. The vision also incorporates the establishment of specialised logistics complexes, light industries complexes, workforce and residential townships, facility complexes, and alternative energy projects in the industrial cities.

New Projects

During the event, Madayn announced its upcoming major projects, which include the Motcar Project. Motcar is an integrated city specialised in car trading, car spare parts, accessories and services to be established in Suhar Industrial City. Motcar aims at presenting a regional centre for the import and re-export of cars, machinery and related services to and from various countries with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa region.

Madayn also announced Nafith Oman Project, which is an integrated system that aims at managing and facilitating the entry and exit of vehicles to/from the current and future industrial cities of Madayn. This project represents a key pillar of the infrastructure development strategy of the industrial cities to keep pace with the technology trends and provide value-adding services.