Oman’s State Budget Shows 2.7% Drop in Spending

Net oil revenue declined in Oman due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (ONA)
Net oil revenue declined in Oman due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (ONA)
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Oman’s State Budget Shows 2.7% Drop in Spending

Net oil revenue declined in Oman due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (ONA)
Net oil revenue declined in Oman due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (ONA)

Spending in the first quarter of 2021 period dropped 2.73 percent, Oman’s Finance Ministry said in its monthly bulletin on Saturday.

Public revenue totaled OMR1.818 billion (USD4.7 billion), down by 30.5 percent as compared with the same period in 2020.

Net oil revenue declined by 34.2 percent. This is attributable to low oil prices and economic implications triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry added.

On the other hand, current revenue increased by 6 percent.

The decline in capital revenue and repayments during the first quarter of 2021, as compared to the same period of 2020, is due to the privatization of Oman Electricity Transmission Company that generated a yield of OMR365.4 million (USD946.4 million), recorded in March 2020.

Oman’s deficit expanded to OMR751.4 million ($1.9 billion) in the first quarter.

Further, over 10,000 job opportunities were provided during Q1 of this year, which is 31.6 percent of the numbers targeted by the Ministry of Labor for 2021.

The report said 4,051 job opportunities were provided in state institutions, including replacements: 1,330 in the Ministry of Health, 2,469 in the Ministry of Education, 115 in the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, 92 at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences and others.



South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025.   REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025.   REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean aims to boost its revenue from overseas military vessels to around 4 trillion won ($2.91 billion) by 2030 and hopes to pick up more repair orders from the US Navy, a senior executive told Reuters.

The Asian country is a major global shipbuilder and trade talks with the US on tariffs brought up possible cooperation in the sector after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restore US shipbuilding.

Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding, is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world with an order book of $31.43 billion as of the end of March. It acquired a US shipyard in Philadelphia last year to expand in the market.

Its naval ships business, which has built dozens of submarines and surface vessels used by the South Korean Navy, has won two orders from the US Navy since last year to repair and overhaul its ships for the first time.

"I think we may be the biggest shipyard in the world that has taken on these maintenance, repair and overhaul orders from the US Navy," said Steve SK Jeong, head of the Naval Ship Global Business at Hanwha Ocean, days after US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan visited its shipyard.

"It is not very profitable, but learning the process of working with the US Navy is valuable, which will help if we win newbuild orders."

Hanwha Ocean hoped to win a double-digit number of US Navy maintenance and repair orders before 2030, Jeong said.

Trump has vowed to spend "a lot of money on shipbuilding" to restore US capacity, and cited concern over how his country has fallen behind in an industry that is also dominated by China.

Still, US laws can make it harder for foreign shipyards even if they have US operations. They are prohibited from building US Navy vessels, due to the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment of the US Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

TRANSPLANTING PROCESSES

Hanwha Ocean's Philadelphia Shipyard is trying to get a license that clears it to build US Navy vessels, but transplanting cutting-edge manufacturing processes honed from competition with other South Korean and Chinese shipyards is not as simple as bringing in some automated welding machines, Jeong said.

"I think the US shipbuilding industry hasn't had to compete very much. Facilities are old, and there's a shortage of technicians," Jeong said.

"We are looking to modernize facilities, train and equip workers, and bring in our manufacturing process that can build the same ship in, I think, two-thirds the time or less as that of a US shipyard."

Jeong said the company is investing in South Korea to use existing facilities and expand naval ship capacity to build five submarines and three surface vessels at the same time by 2029, from two submarines and two surface vessels now.

Despite building 17 submarines for the South Korean Navy since 1987, Hanwha Ocean has only actively competed for overseas orders in the last few years as South Korea's low birthrate and shrinking military-age population risk cooling local demand.

It is competing to export submarines to Poland and Canada, a frigate to Thailand as well as knocking on the door in markets in the Middle East, South America, North Africa and Southeast Asia, to build up a sustained flow of orders that would bring foreign sales to 4 trillion won by 2030, Jeong said.

That would be about four times the size of its 1.05 trillion won of revenue in 2024.