Abstract
With a young and rapidly expanding population, demand for infrastructure
projects in Oman is likely to
remain high, which will help the sector to
weather the current economic climate. Currently, about 43% of
Omanis are
under the age of 14. It is estimated that by 2025 the country' s population
will swell by 41% to
5m, from 3.3m in 2008.
BMI estimates that the
construction industry value in Oman will be OMR1.07bn in 2009, accounting
for
5.2% of GDP. While this represents real growth of only 2.67%
year-on-year (y-o-y), this comes on the
back of nearly five years of solid
double digit growth in the sector. The industry is expected to be valued
at OMR1.57bn by 2013.
Transport infrastructure strategy in Oman has been
dominated by the government’s desire to move away
from a reliance on
oil revenues and explore other revenue streams. A key part of this has been a
strategy
called ' Vision 2020' , an ambitious project that has seen
investment of more than £7bn in several major
tourism projects.
‘Vision 2020’ includes the construction of ten new resorts across
the country within the next five years, as
well as extensive airport
developments and upgrades. Upgrade work to Oman’s airports include
new
runways at Muscat International Airport, along with the construction
of several new airports in the
country.
The country’s gas sector
has continued to grow, with intensive gas exploration activity more than
doubling proven reserves in recent years. While oil has traditionally
accounted for the majority share of
energy production, Oman has recently
moved to develop its gas reserves as part of its economic
diversification
strategy. This has involved signing gas exploration and sales deals with
international
majors.
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