Saudi Arabia and Oman are on track towards greater commercial, investment, and economic cooperation and integration, especially in strategic sectors, industrial cities, logistics, renewable energy, and petrochemical manufactures, Omani and Saudi business sector experts predicted.
Oman’s ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, will be arriving in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for a two-day official visit and a summit with Saudi King Salman in the northwestern mega-city of Neom.
It is noteworthy that this visit is the Omani ruler’s first since being appointed as Sultan back in January and is set to produce a qualitative leap to boost cooperation and reinforce bilateral ties between the Kingdom and Sultanate.
Experts from both sides have called for formulating common visions and an annual work plan that includes specific objectives for raising the volume of trade and investment exchanges between the two countries.
Each of the Saudi-Omani Business Council (SOBC) and the Federation of Saudi Chambers (FSC) stated that the high-level visit reveals the depth of relations between the Kingdom and the Sultanate.
They also noted that economic cooperation would top the visit’s agenda given its significance to Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” and Oman’s “Vision 2040.”
For his part, Saudi Commerce Minister Majid Al-Qasabi reasserted the depth and strength of Saudi-Omani bilateral relations across all fields, especially in the commercial domain, which currently is experiencing remarkable developments due to the ambitious visions of the two countries.
The two countries aim to raise their bilateral trade exchange volume, which reached over SAR58.6bn during the past six years (2015-2020), Al-Qasabi said.
He also stressed that the two sides are keen to consolidate cooperation through the SOBC to translate investment opportunities into tangible partnerships.
The SOBC is working to enhance joint work between Saudi Arabia and Oman to realize the grand ambitions leaderships have in both countries, the head of the SOBC, Nasser Bin Said Al-Hajiri, confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Moreover, Al-Hajiri revealed that the SOBC is working on enhancing available opportunities, raising the exchange of visits for governmental, commercial, and investment delegations, and boosting cooperation between research and study centers in the two countries.
