The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Oman has accepted an amount of $210 million grant from Saudi Arabia to fund two projects at its flagship Arabian Sea port of Duqm, a rare agreement between two countries.
The funding, which will be provided by the Saudi Development Fund, will finance
a 61-million-rial ($158 million) fishing facility and a
road costing 20 million rials, state-run Oman News Agency reported. Oman wants to
develop Duqm into a major hub, and is building a 230,000 barrel per day oil refinery there with Kuwait.
Muscat rarely takes handouts. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) offered it $10 billion aid package following protests in 2011, but it’s not known how much, if anything, was disbursed.
“This grant comes within the framework of developing economic cooperation between the two countries†and programs to develop the GCC, Omani Finance Minister Darwish Al Balushi said. The Saudi fund also set aside $150 million to finance Omani small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Oman, whose debt is rated junk by Standard & Poor’s, is running a state budget deficit of about $8 billion due to low oil prices.
The country plans to make Duqm a major centre for its fishing and fish processing industries, in addition to building an oil refinery, a petrochemical complex and a
wide range of manufacturing facilities in the zone.