The Minister of National Economy of Oman, Ahmed bin Abdul Nabi Macki said that Oman's future expectations are to focus on activating and increasing bilateral trade significantly between India and Oman and encourage reciprocal investments as well as exert efforts to foster joint ventures covering major investment projects.

Speaking at the interactive business event organized by FICCI in New Delhi on Thursday, Macki said, "As regards Omani-India joint venture companies in Oman, there are nearly 1527 companies covering 13 socio economic sectors, with total investments amounting US $753,287,894, out of which the Indian participation amounts to US$ 452,643,433, with a percentage share comprising 60.1 per cent."

He also said that encouraging and attracting foreign direct investment was a top priority in Oman’s diversification strategy, not only to attract more investments, but also to introduce technical knowhow, modern management, advanced marketing techniques as well as on-the-job training to improve the skills of the Omani labour force.

Oman's future outlook for the eight five year plan (2011-15) would also focus on accelerating and enhancing the relative contribution of the non-oil sectors in gross domestic product, giving utmost priority to the development of the Information Technology sector as well as focusing on the implementation of R&D measures, Macki added.

The plan will continue to promote and strengthen the industrial areas and also focus attention for the development of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), he said.

Anil Wadhwa, Indian Ambassador to Oman also opined that Indian companies can participate in developing small and medium sector enterprises (SMEs) in Oman and Omani companies can also take advantage of the thriving SMEs in India.

While interacting with him on the sidelines, Wadhwa also said he has written to Omani government to exert focus on the small and medium size companies and exchange business delegation between both the countries in order to explore potential opportunities.

He told SME Times, "We have written to the Ministry of National Economy to send delegation because Oman has a large small scale industries just as we (India) have. They (Omani) are also collaborating with South Korea and it is a very promising sector. Nothing much has happened in the small sector as more concentration is on large industries for investment proposals."

However,  electronics, IT, manufacturing of anything relating to consumer durables as that all are imported in Oman, textiles and garments can be of benefit for the SME sector, he also said.

They (Omani) have special zones where they give incentives to the small and medium enterprises and they (SMEs) can have potential opportunity in Omani market, he added.

Enumerating views on India-Oman bilateral trade during the conference he said, "In 2008, bilateral trade between India and Oman jumped by US$700 Million over 2007 to US$2 billion. Further, with the hefty increase in oil exports from Oman to India worth US $1.5 BILLION, bilateral trade has touched US$3.3114 billion in 2009."

"Our bilateral trade was US$ 946 million in 2006. Over 140 Indian companies have presence in Oman in different sectors such as construction, manufacturing, trading, telecommunications, oil and gas, fertilizer, education, banking and finance, insurance etc."

"Similarly, over 30 Omani companies are present in India in sectors as in the oil and gas, IT, banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing etc," he added.

Moreover, India-Oman trade basically consists of major items of Indian exports such as textiles and garments, machinery and equipment, electrical and electronics items, chemicals, iron and steel products in addition to traditional items like tea, coffee, spices, rice and meat products and seafood.

On the other hand, major Omani export commodities are urea, LNG (through spot purchase), polypropylene, lubricating oil, dates and chromite ore thus limiting both the countries export-import basket.

Further, Wadhwa also said, "We find that if the necessary focus is there, there can be a substantive increase in bilateral trade in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, ceramics, machinery, value added food products, semi furnished goods in different sectors like textiles and automobile components."

"Oman's FTA with US has not been properly explored by Indian industrialists. Setting up joint ventures in Oman will be a win-win situation for parties, India and Oman," he advised.