India looks towards Oman for more investments

Suresh Prabhu, India’s commerce and industry minister today spoke about the different steps taken by his government to establish an investment-friendly environment and said that the aim is to make India a hub for various investments from Oman.

The minister spoke during the joint India-Oman commission in New Delhi and used the opportunity to invite different Omani companies and spoke about the Make In India initiative which encourages companies to establish manufacturing hubs all over India.

"India has launched several investment friendly programmes like Make in India with a trillion dollar business opportunity in the country," the minister said.

Both countries have shared increased cooperation in areas which include energy, health, infrastructure, space, renewable energy, tourism, start-ups, food security, services sector, and SMEs.

The numbers too are very promising as the bilateral trade between the two countries saw an impressive jump to 6.7 billion dollars in 2017-18 from 4.13 billion dollars in 2014-15.

Several Indian financial institutions which include the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, HDFC, and ICICI Securities have significant presence all across Oman.

Also, many  public-sector undertakings including Air India, Life Insurance Corporation, Engineers India, National Building Construction Company (NBCC), and the Telecommunications Consultants India have spread their footprints in Oman.

"India-Oman Joint Investment Fund, a joint venture between State Bank of India and State General Reserve Fund of Oman, a special purpose vehicle to invest in India, has been operational and the initial corpus of USD 100 million has been fully utilized," the statement further added.

It should be mentioned here that many Indian domestic firms have already invested in Oman in critical sectors which include iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, textile, cables, chemicals and automotive. Sohar and Salalah are the two main regions where there has been a lot of investment.