Oman’s Madayn sees 208% increase in volume of investments; 309% growth in number of projects over last 10 years
Delivery of optimal performance over two five-year plans behind growth
Oman’s Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) has delivered an overall optimal performance with the end of its five-year plans (2011-2015 and 2016-2020) marking notable growth rates.
Over the course of these 10 years, Madayn has achieved a growth rate of 309% in the number of projects, 208% in the volume of investments, and 274% in the number of workforce, said its top official.
“During the 2006-2019 period, Madayn has achieved an increase in the total income by 871% and the net profit doubled more than 10 times touching over 1055%, stated its CEO Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, in a statement.
During the period 2016-2020, he added that Madayn has elevated the percentage of capital expenditure financing to 68% by 2019, while the initial indicators of 2021 results show that Madayn is approaching 80% in this regard.
Al Hasani pointed out that Madayn is financing its operating expenses by 100% since 2006. He also highlighted that the sultanate’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019 amounted to USD$76,323,316,051 according to the monthly statistical bulletin released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
“The gross output of the companies investing in Madayn in 2019 amounted to $7,296,696,963.26, and the value added of the producing companies in Madayn stood at $2,796,531,165.33,” Al Hasani stated.
During the same period, the total value of exports in all the industrial cities reached $3,540,249,814.27; while the total value of imports touched $2,827,981,845.02. The latter constitutes $2,018,714,900.80 of the value of imported raw materials and $809,266,944.22 of the value of local raw materials.
Al Hasani also announced the launch of ‘Madayn Investment Complexes’ project, which will present an ideal opportunity for local and foreign companies to invest in the industrial sector and associated complementary sectors.
“These companies shall develop specialised investment complexes through real estate plans, and the designs shall get approved by Madayn. The developing companies will then promote the industrial and investment units with the facilities for the local and foreign companies to buy or rent these units for immediate operation, following the installation of production lines of the tenant or owner,” Al Hasani said.
Development opportunities will be announced for 10 investment complexes in Suhar, Al Buraimi, Samail, and Sur industrial cities in a variety of sectors, he added. The activities of these investment complexes will represent a variety of sectors including multi-industries, food, plastic, and logistics industries.
“These investment complexes shall support the industrial integration between small and large factories, and contribute to encouraging local and foreign investments towards the complementary industries. This project shall also offer an opportunity for the SMEs to enter the industrial sector through these investment complexes. The SMEs will be able to buy or lease real estate units with small areas that are compatible with their operational and production capacity,” Al Hasani stated.
Covid-19 Impact
With the objective of attracting more investments to the industrial cities as well as mitigating the economic impact of Covid-19 and the global drop of oil prices, Al Hasani emphasised that Madayn has ensured to translate its responsibility towards investors and industrialists by announcing a lineup of incentives to support the investment environment in the industrial cities.
Incentives were announced for Al Buraimi, Ibri, Al Mudhaibi and Thumrait industrial cities, and any industrial city to be announced later, which include exemption from rental value for a period of two years for all new projects, followed by a reduction in the rental value for a period of three years by 50% for contracts concluded during the period from 2021 to 2024, in addition to reducing all other fees listed in Annex no. (1) of the Investment Regulations by 50% for all new projects during the period from 2021 to 2024.
The incentives also include reducing fees for IT activity license by 50% for a period of two years during the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022 for the existing and new projects in the Knowledge Oasis Muscat; in addition to not imposing fines for the delay in payments for the years 2020 and 2021.
New Industrial Cities
Commenting on the executive position of the new industrial cities that were announced earlier by Madayn, Al Hasani elaborated that the project of establishing Thumrait Industrial City has entered the final stage of designing the infrastructure, identifying available investment opportunities for the private sector, and updating the economic analysis. An environmental study was also conducted by a specialised environmental consultant and the environmental approval has been obtained from the relevant body.
Located about 9 km away from Thumrait Air Base towards Marmul, the 4 million sqm area of Thumrait Industrial City will focus on mining industries such as gypsum and limestone industries, in addition to light industries related to building materials like cement products. Thumrait Industrial City will also be home to several support services such as vehicle maintenance workshops, cold and dry storage facilities, a fuel station, and truck weigh station.
