The SME units include medium, small and micro business enterprises. Among various governorates, Muscat governorate witnessed new registrations of 1,123 SME units in January-June period of 2018, constituting 36.7 per cent of total new registrations. However, it was down from 1,654 new registrations in the same period of last year, the NCSI report added.

New registrations of SMEs in North Al Batinah stood at 475 during the first half of 2018 (constituting 15.5 per cent of the total registrations), against 701 for the same period of last year. As many as 31,835 new SME units were registered in Oman in 2017. Of this, 10,260 new units were in Muscat Governorate, the NCSI report showed.