FROM OMAN TO ALUMINIUM DRE ITS FEET FIRMLY

Times News Service

SOHAR: One of Oman’s leading companies brought great pride to the Sultanate by taking the initiative to host the Middle East’s top aluminium conference in the country.

Sohar Aluminium spearheaded the initiative to host ARABAL, the Arab International Aluminium Conference, providing companies in the Middle East and beyond to share ideas and strategies on how to plan for future industrial developments and research.

With Oman looking to diversify away from traditional fossil-fuel based sources of revenue such as oil and gas, and expand its economy under the Tanfeedh directives for economic diversification, with industry and manufacturing targeted as one of the areas for growth, ARABAL (held between November 6 and 9, 2017) represented a great opportunity to find out not just what Oman had to offer, but also allowed Omani companies the chance to do business with the world.

“While Oman’s many natural resources have been harnessed with considerable success, we need vision to unlock their full potential,” said HH Sayyid Kamil bin Fahad bin Mahmood Al Said, Assistant Secretary General for the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers.

“This is something Oman has been able to achieve within the global aluminium sector since its emergence as a player only a few years ago. Locally, the industry has boosted job opportunities and created a valuable knowledge base regionally and globally, which has contributed significantly in raising Oman’s profile.

“The agenda for ARABAL 2017 illustrated a threat common for the aluminium sector that has succeeded in standing the trials of time,” he added. It is the ability to come together as a knowledgeable group capable of shining a light not just on successes but on the many hcallenges and issues currently faced as well as those to come. As an even younger yet growing sector within Oman and the broader Middle East, we hope the aluminium and manufacturing industry as a whole will prove an agent of positive development.” A host of programmes to improve the standards of aluminium mining and smelting, as well as employing the latest technologies in worker safety and factory management. 504 delegates from 42 nations across the world, with companies from Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, the GCC and the United States, as well as several universities and media and financial firms, attended ARABAL 2017.

Among the topics aired were smelter process and production optimisation, the challenges and opportunities for the Middle Eastern aluminium sector, future demand for aluminium from emerging markets, a global market economic