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Omani businesses are following the Sultanate’s lead into Central Asia: Omani companies signed several MoUs with Kazakh institutions on Wednesday, exploring a spate of projects and collaborations in food industries, technology, and logistics. None of these agreements appear to deploy capital right away, but they remain a sign of Oman’s sharper focus on the Central Asia region. The agreements came during an Omani trade mission led by the Commerce Ministry that arrived in Kazakh capital Almaty earlier this week, with the mission focusing on pharma products, medical supplies, food and fish products, marble and building materials industries, aluminum and metallic products, and petrochemicals.
The highlights: A key agreement struck is an MoU exploring mango-processing partnership between Oman’s Four Dimensions and Sherstnev Group. Oman’s Rakeeza will also provide feasibility, engineering, and commercial planning for the planned Almaty Center for Advanced Science and Technologies (ACAST) — a USD 100 mn project aimed at building a research and development hub focused on mining, metallurgy innovation, and rare earths supply chains.
IN CONTEXT- Oman is zooming in on Central Asia as part of a wider push to diversify its foreign investments and its non-oil export markets. The Sultanate’s sovereign investor the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has been leading the push, setting up bilateral funds with SWFs counterparts across the Central Asia region — and its latest is a Muscat-based USD 500 mn fund that will launch next month with contributions from a consortium of SWFs and institutional investors.
