Salalah suitable for investment, OCCI tells Indian envoy
New areas of trade and investment in Salalah under current business scenario were discussed between the Omani and Indian sides at a meeting held at the Salalah chapter of Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industries (OCCI) on Monday.
Both sides exchanged views about the business opportunities in diverse sectors ranging from transport, tourism, food and beverages and industrial investment.
The participants at the meeting were Hussain Huthaim al Batahari, Chairman of OCCI Salalah; OCCI board members; Munu Mahawar, Indian Ambassador to Oman; and Sabir Yumkhaibam, Second Secretary Embassy of India.
In his comments to the Observer, Mahawar said it was his first visit to Salalah and through this visit he could understand the business potential of Salalah. “Oman and India already have very strong trade relations and scope is there to take it to higher level because opportunities are there in both the sides.”
He emphasised that India is a strategic partner of Oman and relations with Oman is always top on priority for India.
“Trade is already happening between both the countries and till last year the volume was six to seven billion dollars, as Indians have invested in Oman and Omanis have invested in India.”
Mahawar asserted that there is very high level of complementarity between Oman and India in which both the countries fulfil each other’s requirements in many areas.
“As an ambassador my role essentially is to look for those opportunities and see how we can work together and take our cooperation to higher levels,” he said.
He admitted that in his first familiarisation trip to Salalah he got strong positive impression about the city and its people, as it holds business opportunity in large number of sectors ranging from energy to mining, manufacturing, tourism and agriculture.
“We have been importing energy, limestone and gypsum from Oman. We have strong manufacturing presence in many parts of Oman. Still there is huge scope in many other sectors. We are exploring all of them,” he said.
Both the sides were convinced about strengths Salalah is having due to its location and infrastructure development.
“We have well developed Salalah Free Zone with presence of many international production houses, we have Port of Salalah, which is one of the largest ports in the region and we have Salalah Airport with stateof-the-art cargo terminal,” said Al Batahari, Chairman of OCCI Salalah, while commenting on the facilities Salalah has to offer to the international investors.
He termed the meeting useful for future investments in Salalah, which is likely to have surplus gas supply for industries by 2020.
“We discussed wide range of issues and areas of co-operation and were convinced that Salalah stores opportunity in sectors like mining, energy, fisheries and agriculture and each of the sectors has hundreds of opportunities. It is up to us to explore and exploit,” he said.