Saudi Arabia, Oman set up new joint council on sultan’s visit to Kingdom
King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held talks at NEOM Palace on Sunday with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said on the Omani leader’s first foreign trip since taking office last year.
The king and the sultan attended the signing ceremony of an agreement establishing the Saudi-Omani Coordination Council to oversee several agreements.
The opening of a new road and a border crossing between the two countries is expected to facilitate logistics and other infrastructure projects.
The Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources, Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, said the strong ties between Saudi Arabia and Oman had a direct impact on promoting their unified vision to achieve sustainable development goals and identify promising investment opportunities, especially in the industrial and mineral resources sectors.
The sultan’s visit was an opportunity to enhance cooperation and coordination to exchange expertise in legislation, regulations and industrial experiences with the aim of achieving industrial integration between Saudi Arabia and Oman, the minister said.
He said the volume of Saudi non-oil exports to Oman in the past five years amounted to more than SR17 billion ($4.5 billion) and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund had contributed to financing two joint projects with Oman worth more than SR90 million.
The Saudi Minister of
Investment, Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, said the sultan’s visit would stimulate economic and investment cooperation between the two countries. Trade between Saudi Arabia and Oman in the first three months of this year was worth SR2 billion, the minister said, and Saudi investment in Oman reached SR24 billion, with SR4.7 billion of Omani investments in the Kingdom.