Salalah Free Zone attracts $60m new investments
On an eventful day, Salalah Free Zone rolled out work procedure for the setting up of four companies on Wednesday. Besides laying the foundation for manufacturing unit of Fortune Bio Organic LLC, the SFZ authorities signed two Mous and one usufruct agreement with Asterix Reinforced Limited, Oman Pen and Paper Industries Limited, and Gulf Tech Industries LLC respectively.
The event was held under the auspices of Ahmed bin Nasser bin Hamad al Mehrzi, Minister of Tourism and Chairman of Salalah Free Zone. He laid the foundation for Fortune Bio Organic Company, while Awadh bin Salim al Shanfari, CEO of the Free Zone, signed the agreements with the companies.
In his welcome note Al Shanfari promised the best possible infrastructure to the investors and exhorted them to create more and more opportunities for the Omani workforce. The new projects would bring investments worth $60 million and create some 440 jobs.
Fortune Bio Organic LLC will be a manufacturing unit where the extraction of curcumin from turmeric and other essential oils will take place. The company’s Managing Director Alok Agarwaol said the production unit would generate 100 direct and indirect jobs with an estimated investment of $20 million.
“Curcumin global market size would be worth $99.3 million by 2024. Curcumin The product’s applications ranges from pharmaceutical; food; cosmetics to many other things owing to the presence of anti-oxidation, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties which should drive its global market growth. The production volume will be 25 tonnes a day,” he said.
Asterix Reinforced Limited has two projects. The first project would be manufacturing unit of unsaturated polyester resin with an investment size of $15 million, while the second would be manufacturing unit of flexible intermediate bulk container (jumbo bags) and polypropylene (PP) / high density poly ethylene (HDPE) bags with an investment of $ 10 million.
Pavwan Droliaa, Chairman of the company, signed the MOU with the SFZ and hoped that both the phases have capacity to generate 200 and 120 jobs respectively.
Production volume for the first project would be 24,000MT per annum, while for the second project, it would be 4,000MT per annum.
Rohit Deepak Jalan, Managing Director of Oman Pen and Paper Industries, signed the MOU on behalf of his company which would be operated by Mahmood Ahmed Abdullah, CEO of Oman Pen and Paper Industries. The company would start functioning in phases.
“In the first phase there would be a pen manufacturing unit and the products would be exported to the Middle East and Africa region. The size of investment will be $10 million and. The number of employees will be 80 and production / import and export volume will be 30 million per annum,” he said.
The Gulf Tech Industries, a popular name in the Sultanate, deals in electrical, hardware and plumbing materials wholesale distribution network in between B2B customer segment.
It would have a manufacturing of packaging product at the SFZ. The size of investment will be $ 5 million. It would have 60 job opportunities. Razak Puthiya Purayil, chairman, signed the usufruct agreement with the SFZ . The company’s production volume would be 2,300 tonnes yearly.