Saudi-Omani MoUs Boost Shared Investments

The second meeting of the Saudi-Omani Business Council, which concluded on Monday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The second meeting of the Saudi-Omani Business Council, which concluded on Monday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi-Omani MoUs Boost Shared Investments

The second meeting of the Saudi-Omani Business Council, which concluded on Monday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The second meeting of the Saudi-Omani Business Council, which concluded on Monday in Muscat (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Omani-Saudi Investment Forum and the Joint Saudi-Omani Business Council concluded their meetings and activities on Monday in Muscat, by introducing and promoting investment opportunities in the Kingdom and Sultanate.

In a major boost for Oman’s ambitious shrimp farming industry, Fisheries Development Oman (FDO) – the fisheries sector investment and development arm of the government – has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Aquaculture Group (Naqua) of Saudi Arabia centering on cooperation in the development of the former’s shrimp farming project at Al Jazer on the Sultanate’s Al Wusta coast.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Omani-Saudi Investment Forum.

More so, several Saudi businessmen inked agreements and MoUs for services and researching future investment opportunities with a number of Omani companies.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment, Khalid al-Falih, and Oman’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, Qais al-Yousef discussed the horizons open for trade and investment cooperation between their two countries.

“On this visit, we anticipated a serious desire to build a growing partnership in the strategic economic sectors of interest to the two countries... We are fully prepared to advance this partnership and achieve integration,” said al-Yousef.

Al-Yousef said that the existing investment structures provide an attractive environment for promising projects. These factors affirm suitable opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors from Saudi Arabia to enter partnerships with their Omani counterparts.

Al-Yousef said that Oman and Saudi Arabia seek to achieve prosperity for their citizens and that this partnership, based on solid grounds of integrated action, constitutes an opportunity for the two countries’ people.

During the meeting, al-Falih and al-Yousef signed an MoU for cooperation on investment promotion.

The meeting also discussed means of promoting trade between the two countries and the formation of joint committees in the targeted sectors.

Al-Falih said that the development and transformational trends in the two countries, namely Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Oman’s Vision 2040, have provided a large space for joint strategic investment opportunities that benefit both states.

In a speech, al-Falih praised the “historic visit” of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in July, SPA reported.



Ukraine Receives First 3 Bln Euro Tranche of G7 Loan from EU

An explosion of a drone after it hit an apartment building is seen in the sky during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
An explosion of a drone after it hit an apartment building is seen in the sky during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
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Ukraine Receives First 3 Bln Euro Tranche of G7 Loan from EU

An explosion of a drone after it hit an apartment building is seen in the sky during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
An explosion of a drone after it hit an apartment building is seen in the sky during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Ukraine received its first 3 billion euro ($3.09 billion) tranche of the European Union's portion of the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) loan agreed for Ukraine by the G7 group of countries, its prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.

It was the first tranche of EU loan secured by profits from frozen Russian assets, Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram app.

G7 leaders in October agreed to provide some $50 billion in loans to Ukraine via multiple channels.
"Today, we deliver €3 billion to Ukraine, the 1st payment of the EU part of the G7 loan. Giving Ukraine the financial power to continue fighting for its freedom – and prevail," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media platform X.

In other economic news, Ukraine's steel output rose by 21.6% in 2024 to 7.58 million metric tons, its producers union said late on Thursday, though fighting that is closing in on the country's only coking coal mine threatens to slash volumes this year.

Steel production has already suffered since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, which has led to the destruction of leading steel plants.

Ukraine, formerly a major steel producer and exporter, reported a 70.7% drop in output in 2022 to 6.3 million tons. It fell to 6 million tons in 2023.

The steelmakers' union said in October the potential closure of the Pokrovsk mine, Ukraine's only coking coal mine, could cause steel production to slump to 2-3 million metric tons in 2025.
Advancing Russian forces are less than 2 km (1.24 miles) from the mine, Ukrainian military analyst DeepState said on Friday.
The mine's owner, steelmaker Metinvest BV, said last month it had already halted some operations at the mine and two industry sources said it was operating at 50% capacity.
Producers have said they hope to find coking coal from elsewhere in Ukraine should the mine be seized by Russian troops, but imports would inevitably be needed which would raise costs.