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Oman's non-oil exports surge more than 46pc

MUSCAT — A vigorous drive to step up non-oil exports, spearheaded by the Oman Centre for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ociped), has paid rich dividends with their volume jumping by more than 46 per cent last year.

"We are happy to announce a significant growth in exports of Omani origin products during 2006," Aiman Ambusaidi, Ociped's Director of Export Development, said.

Shipments of such goods fetched the country RO812.3 million, compared with RO555.3 million in 2005, up 46.3 per cent.

Since 2001, the first year of the Sixth Five Year Plan, when non-oil Omani origin exports totalled RO265.8 million, shipments have grown at a compounded annual rate of 20.2 per cent.

"The performance has been in line with the export strategy adopted by Ociped, which has identified thrust products and target markets for the short term (2001 - 2005) medium term (2006 - 2010) and long term (2011 - 2020)," Ambusaidi noted.

Some of the steps taken by the centre, he said, included conducting market studies in target markets, establishing a trade information database, titled 'Oman TradeMap', in association with the International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva.

Ociped also published a 'Trade Secrets Document of Sultanate of Oman', again in association with (ITC),Geneva, featuring 148 most frequently asked questions regarding exports, and launched the 'Oman Productmap', a user friendly trade information portal covering 72 sectors.

Ambusaidi said the centre coordinated with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and obtained the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) data for EU, USA, Japan, Turkey and Switzerland.