Madayn highlights investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia
Times News Service
MUSCAT: In line with its efforts to attract investors and developers and contribute to the advancement of the national economy, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) organised on Monday a meeting entitled ‘Investment Opportunities in Madayn’ in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.
Held in the presence of businessmen and investors in Saudi Arabia, the event was organised under the auspices of Sayyid Dr Ahmed bin Hilal Al Busaidi, the Sultanate’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The event aimed at highlighting the investment environment in the Sultanate and the mechanism to set up and manage projects in the industrial estates.
Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, CEO of Madayn, noted that Madayn has an experience of more than 35 years in the field of construction, management and operation of industrial estates in the Sultanate.
He said that the journey began with Rusayl Industrial Estate in Muscat and by now Madayn is managing and operating seven industrial estates throughout the Sultanate in addition to the Knowledge Oasis Muscat and Al Mazunah Free Zone. With more than 2,000 investors investing in the various industrial estates, the total volume of investments in the nine estates is getting close to OMR7 billion. Besides, the total area of Madayn’s estates exceed 100 million square metres.
Khalid bin Sulaiman Al Salhi, Director of Marketing and Promotion at Madayn, delivered a presentation that highlighted the available investment opportunities in the industrial estates that fall under the umbrella of Madayn.
He pointed out the vision of Madayn which is to enhance Oman’s position as a regional centre of manufacturing, ICT, innovation and entrepreneurship excellence, and its mission to attract industrial investments and provide continued support, through regionally and globally competitive strategies, good infrastructure, value adding services, and easy governmental processes.
Objectives of Madayn
Al Salhi also underlined the objectives of Madayn which include attracting foreign investments to the Sultanate and localising the national capital; contributing to stimulating the private sector to achieve sustainable economic and social development; achieving environmental sustainability, and contributing to the creation of new job opportunities for the national cadres.
Elaborating on the incentives and facilities offered by Madayn, Al Salhi stated that the incentives include lease period of lands and facilities for up to 30 years, renewable for the same period; right to sell constructions and buildings on the leased land; right to lease the buildings and facilities built on the leased lands by investors; right to involve new partners in the lease contract; exemption from tax on net profit for a period of five years for industrial projects; exemption from customs duties and taxes on production input; among other incentives.
Al Salhi also gave a brief on the role played by Madayn’s technology arm – the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) in creating, promoting and developing Oman as a robust, diverse, prosperous and self-sustaining knowledgedriven economy. KOM aspires to contribute to the advancement of economic diversification through offering investment opportunities in the IT sector and eventually build a knowledge-based economy in the Sultanate.
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