History of development in Oman
Sharing borders with UAE to the north, Yemen to its
south-west and Saudi Arabia to its west Oman has a long coastline of 1700
kilometres towering three seas: Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea and Persian sea. Oman
has strategic advantage of having this vast coastline that is a centre point
for taking halt for majority of the countries carrying out trading activities.
This location advantage that has huge access to the water body which is
definitely useful for Oman in carrying world trade activities and having
economic relations with the rest of the world. But unfortunately this isn’t the
case with Oman as apart from countries seeking help of Oman for carrying out
trading activities with the rest of the world Oman is not economically linked
with other countries. Thus lack of utilisation of strategic advantage of the
location, Oman was not a prosperous country and it was an isolated country when
it came to development.
Because of the oil reserves available in the country, its
economy always sustained. But if you look at the other business opportunities Oman
was an untapped market for a long period of time. Until the half of the 20th
century Oman struggled to position itself in the eyes of the world economy as
state of carrying out economic affairs and maintaining trade relations. The
second half of the decade observed some major changes in the Oman’s economy when
Sultan Qaboos acceded the throne of his father and carried some major changes
in the policies of Oman by setting up modern governance under the rule of Oman
Sultanate. He liberalised the policies of the country and opened the Oman’s
economy to the rest of the world. That is when things started to change and
other countries perception about Oman changed to the land of opportunities.
That’s when many big business tycoons looking for expansion
of their business empire explored Oman and set up their business in the
country. This gave a boost to the employment in the country and gave a rise to
the increase in the economic activities of the country. Education was improved
and standard of living of people was enhanced. Slowly and gradually the sectors
like construction, manufacturing, production and processing triggered.
Construction sector off late started to boost when Oman was tapped and
overlooked by some very enthusiastic businessmen like Dr P Mohamed Ali of
Galfar Construction and Contracting Company SOAG. By the end of the 20th
century and the start of the 21st century infrastructure in Oman was
improved on vast a scale as compared to before. This gave rise to availability
of various facilities which in turn laid to overall development and improved
standard of living of the people.
P Mohamed Ali is now recognized as the big business icon
of middle-east and also the backbone behind Oman’s multifaceted development.
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