Madayn woos Saudi businessmen to invest in Ibri Industrial City

Muscat: Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Falih, Investment Minister of Saudi Arabia, accompanied by a delegation, visited on Monday the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates – Madayn at its headquarters in the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM).

Welcoming the delegation, 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 emphasised the robust bilateral ties between the Sultanate and Saudi Arabia and the significance of economic integration and trade relations between the two countries.

Masan encouraged Saudi investors and businessmen to set up businesses in Ibri Industrial City, which is strategically located on the road leading to the new border between Oman and Saudi Arabia. “Ibri Industrial City will offer significant opportunities for Saudi industries targeting the Omani market and vice versa and shall feature a variety of industries, most notably the logistics industry,” he pointed out.

He informed that the total area of Madayn’s existing industrial cities and those that are under development has touched around 140 million square metres with 2,200 projects operating in these industrial cities, and the number of the workforce has surpassed 62,000.

“The total investment volume has reached OMR6.8 billion in the various industrial cities where the manufacturing industries represent the majority of the total investments, as they constitute approximately 83 per cent of the total investments,” Masan added.

According to last year’s industrial survey on the existing industries within the industrial cities, the value of raw materials used in production has exceeded OMR1 billion and the imported raw materials constitute more than 71 per cent.

This shall act as an incentive for the Saudi cluster industries to expand in the Sultanate’s industrial cities. Moreover, the value of products by factories and projects based in the industrial cities has exceeded OMR3.7 billion during 2020, with exports from these amounting to more than 73 per cent.

The high-profile Saudi delegation also got acquainted with Oman’s first tech park and Madayn’s technology arm – the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM). KOM is home to over 190 local, regional and global companies, institutions and organisations ranging from flourishing home-grown SMEs and leading higher education providers to thriving businesses capitalising on KOM’s well-established reputation as a centre of excellence and opportunity.

Madayn vision

On her part, Ibtisam bint Ahmed Al Farooji, Director General of Investor Services at Madayn, elaborated on Madayn Vision 2040, incentives offered to investors and available investment opportunities. Al Farooji explained that Madayn’s vision revolves around building world-class business cities based on partnership while maintaining the Omani identity.

“Madayn aims to achieve an enhanced government role for comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development. This enhanced role shall be achieved through firming up a partnership with the private sector to develop and operate business cities with integrated services and rapid response to variations while adopting best solutions and technologies that meet the needs of investors,” she pointed out.

Highlighting Madayn’s current and new projects, Al Farooji stated that Madayn Vehicle Complex (Motkar) in Suhar Industrial City aims at presenting a centre for the re-export of used cars to Asian, African and Middle Eastern markets on a total area of 954,096 square metres.

The master plan of the project comprises car and spare parts showrooms, vehicle service facilities, truck parking lots, Traffic and Customs of Royal Oman Police, and more integrated services are expected to be incorporated in the project to serve the tenants and investors in the automotive industry.

Al Farooji also highlighted the commercial port project in Sur, which aims at establishing value-added infrastructure for global maritime trade in the Sultanate. Designed to meet various requirements for shipping and importing, this project comes to encourage economic development in Sur Industrial City and support social development in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate.

The delegation was also briefed on the infrastructure development project of Marmul Industrial City, which is located in the Wilayat of Shalim that is 372km away from Duqm, 341 km away from Salalah and 819 km away from Muscat. Marmul Industrial City embodies the result of cooperation between Madayn and Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and shall offer an ideal investment environment for oil and gas, and mining industries.

Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Falih, Saudi’s Minister of Investment and the accompanying delegation, then visited Areej Vegetable Oils and Derivatives, Oman Fiber Optic, and Oman Cables Industry which are based at Al Rusayl Industrial City.