Oman records nearly 14% rise in commercial registrations in 2024

19/04/2025 03:51 AST

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP) has revealed during its annual media briefing in Muscat that the cumulative number of commercial registrations in Oman increased by 13.96% in 2024, reaching 441,773 compared to 2023.

The ministry highlighted a 3.6% growth in the contribution of domestic trade to Oman's GDP in 2024, amounting to over 19 billion OMR. Service activities accounted for 46.5% of the GDP. Additionally, foreign direct investments exceeded 30 billion OMR by the end of 2024, marking an increase of 4.58 billion OMR compared to the previous year. Investments in the manufacturing sector reached over 2.4 billion OMR.

Oman's total trade volume with global markets exceeded 40.9 billion OMR in 2024, with commodity exports reaching 24.2 billion OMR. The ministry continues to enhance its presence in regional and global markets, focusing on GCC countries, East Asia, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the USA, Europe, and China to promote economic diversification.

In 2024, the ministry implemented 41 initiatives, completing 29, and plans to carry out 15 initiatives in 2025 across trade, industry, investment services, competition protection, and standardization sectors.

Through Oman Business Platform, 827,129 transactions were processed in 2024, a 15.1% increase compared to 2023, alongside over one million automatic licenses issued since April 2021. Requests for trademarks, patents, copyrights, and industrial designs totaled 12,675 in 2024. The Sanad Service Centers completed over 1.2 million electronic transactions via 913 centers.

The ministry continues to implement specialized programs targeting sectors such as wholesale and retail, construction, and manufacturing, in collaboration with the National Employment Program, Ministry of Labour, and local companies. Oman employed 18,437 citizens in these sectors in the second half of 2024.

The Invest in Oman platform showcased 68 investment opportunities and processed 90 projects, with 40 valued over 1 billion OMR localized. By February 2025, Oman had issued Investor Residency Program cards to 3,407 investors from over 60 countries.

The ministry also launched initiatives to improve trust in conformity assessment outputs and adopted over 1,000 new standards to boost product competitiveness internationally. Efforts to combat concealed trade were advanced alongside "Oman Exports," which connects local companies to global markets and promotes non-oil exports.

During the briefing, the ministry unveiled the "Najd Agricultural Area Guide" to attract investment in food security, "Ishrak Window" for investor participation in reviewing regulations, and "Tijara Channel" for enhanced public engagement. It also announced the first "Advantage Oman Forum" on April 27-28 to explore investment prospects globally and locally.

The event was attended by officials including Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion Qais bin Mohammed Al-Yousef and other high-ranking representatives.

Times of Oman