Privatization Policy

After having established most of the essential development requirement and provided the favourable climate for investment, the Omani Government saw that the private sector should be encouraged to participate effectively in the development. It, therefore, adopted a number of policies and measures to promote the private sector. One of such policies was the privatization policy that got commenced in the early eighties. The Government uses the following methods for privatizing its assets:

1. Direct sale of government shares and assets.
2. Offering the capital increase for production capacity expansion projects for direct public subscription. 
3. Granting concessions to set up projects against investment on BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) basis.

Oman’s privatization process is based on several policies as set out in the fifth five-year plan, which include the following: 

• Privatization forms a part of the government’s program aimed achieving sustained development and to raise the growth ratios and to distribute the fruits of development to all regions and all sections of the public. 
• Priority in privatization shall be given to service sectors that operate on a commercial basis such as sewage, electricity, water, communications, speedways, etc. However, while privatizing these services, the financial and administrative capability of the private sector to run such activities should be taken into consideration.
• More than one company shall be set up, as far as possible, to provide the required service, in order to have competition among them and whereby the Government can evaluate and compare the performance and efficiency of each of them.
• Foreign participation in the privatization projects shall be encouraged in order to benefit from the foreign capital and technical and managerial expertise. However, this shall be pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign Capital Investment Law.

Agreements on Investment Promotion and Protection

In order to boost investment cooperation between Oman and other countries of the world, the Sultanate had signed more than 35 agreements on promotion and protection of joint investments, with 25 countries such as Jordan, Yemen, USA, Tunisia, etc. Oman has also signed agreements on avoiding double taxations with France, India UK, Pakistan, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritius, Russia, China and Yemen till the end of August 2002. 

With its accession to WTO, Oman now get the benefits of the developing countries and it can now resort to the WTO rules and regulations to settle commercial disputes with other countries. 

In line with its policy of promoting investments, Oman had issued the Copyright Law in 1996. Earlier the Sultanate had promulgated the Law of Trade Marks and Information and Patenting. Oman also has joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).