Sohar Industrial City attracts 27 projects worth RO 75 million

Sohar: Sohar Industrial City has achieved the highest increase in the total number of projects and volume of investments among the industrial cities affiliated with the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) by the end of the third quarter of 2024.

Eng, Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Mayasi, Director General of Sohar Industrial City, explained that the number of new projects localized in the city reached about 27 projects by the end of September 2024, with an investment volume of 75 million Omani riyals and a total area of ​​400 thousand square meters, thus exceeding the cumulative investment volume in the industrial city of 2.3 billion Omani, and the number of projects is 395 projects employing more than 14 thousand workers.

He confirmed in a statement to the Oman News Agency that in the second quarter of this year, the infrastructure project of the seventh phase was completed with an investment volume of more than 20 million Omani riyals. Consulting works were also awarded to improve and develop the infrastructure in the first to sixth phases. It is hoped that these works will be completed during the second quarter of 2025, as Madayn invested about 400 thousand Omani riyals in the project.

He pointed out that agreements were signed for 11 projects with investments exceeding 30 million Omani riyals in the Ladain Complex for Plastic Industries, and the percentage of the utilized area reached approximately 15 percent of the total area allocated to the complex.

Regarding the integrated economic cluster for aluminium, the Director General of Sohar Industrial City said that the team working on implementing the cluster project is continuing to work on studying the establishment of the “aluminum” cluster, where in the first phase, a meeting was held with stakeholders from government and private entities to monitor the challenges and opportunities in this sector and to identify the possibilities and incentives that contribute to the success of this cluster.

He added that the next phase will be to study the sector’s environment and identify promising investment opportunities to begin marketing them in other phases, noting that the aluminum industry is one of the most important industrial sectors in the Sultanate of Oman and contributes significantly to diversifying the national economy and providing new job opportunities.

Eng, Abdullah Al Mayasi explained that the Integrated Economic Cluster for the Aluminum Industry seeks to enhance the position of the Sultanate of Oman as a global center for the aluminum industry by attracting new investments and developing new transformation industries.

Regarding the Ladain Plastic Industries Complex, he explained that the Ladain Plastic Industries Complex project, a joint venture between the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) and OQ Group, in cooperation with the National Program for Private Sector Development and Foreign Trade (Nazdar) and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, aims to develop an integrated zone for the manufacture of semi-finished and fully-finished plastic products with high added value, with an area estimated at one million square meters, to create a diversified competitive economy in line with the Oman 2040 vision.

The Director General of Sohar Industrial City added that an attractive package of incentives for investment is being provided by the relevant authorities, such as allocating land in Sohar Industrial City with an exemption from rental fees for one or two years, followed by a 50 percent reduction in rental value for the next three years from the signing of the contract.

OQ Group also provides raw materials at reduced prices according to certain criteria and other incentives.