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Oman Industry
The government's program to diversify from the oil
industry
emphasizes the industrial sector, with a steady increase
in
small- and medium-sized industries based on heavily
subsidized
industrial parks. The first industrial estate, at Ar
Rusayl,
fifteen kilometers from As Sib International Airport, was
developed in the mid-1980s and housed about sixty
enterprises,
including manufacturers of cement, soap, crackers, and
copper
cathodes. The sultanate's second industrial estate, a
100-hectare
site at Raysut, was developed in the early 1990s by the
local
firm of Shanfari and Partners. The sultanate's third
industrial
estate is a planned fifty-hectare project at Suhar. Other
estates
are planned at Nazwah, Sur, Al Khasab, and the Al Buraymi
Oasis.
The government is also studying the feasibility of
establishing
cottage industries to produce such items as pottery, rose
water,
and frankincense. As a result of these efforts, by 1991
manufacturing contributed 3.5 percent of Oman's GDP.
A few small-scale traditional industries use primitive
methods, such as in the production of ghee (clarified
butter) and
the drying of fish, dates, and limes. Some handicraft
industries
remain, but their importance is steadily being eclipsed.
Silversmiths practice their trade, and artisans work with
clay at
Bahla, just west of Adam, an important center for the
production
of household pottery. Goldsmiths follow their trade in the
Muscat
metropolitan area and its environs. In several regions,
workers
fashion low-quality, hand-made cloth from locally produced
wool.
The coastal towns remain boat-building centers.
Whereas the industrial sector during the 1970s and
1980s was
aimed at
import-substitution industrialization (see Glossary),
the objective in the 1990s was to encourage export
industries for
the gulf market. However, this assumes that Oman will be
able to
operate effectively in an increasingly competitive market,
attract foreign investors, and increase the role of
privatesector industry.
To increase its ability to compete with its gulf
neighbors,
particularly Dubayy, where the Mina Jabal Ali Duty Free
Zone
permits fully owned foreign subsidiaries, Oman needs to
overhaul
its commercial and economic laws. The Ministry of Commerce
and
Industry set up three working teams in early 1992 to
recommend
amendments to existing laws for discussion with the Oman
Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) and the Consultative
Council. The
government revised laws to permit GCC nationals to own up
to 49
percent of the shares in twenty specified Omani companies,
ten of
which are banks. The OCCI has introduced an industrial
consultations unit, computer-linked with the Vienna-based
United
Nations Industrial Development Organization, offering
investment
advice on twenty industrial sectors as well as data on
equipment
suppliers and training needs.
Data as of January 1993
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