MUSCAT (The Thursday Times) — Oman’s sovereign wealth fund has signed a package of agreements with Chinese companies and funds worth billions of dollars, the largest it has ever agreed with Chinese partners, the fund said on Thursday.
The Oman Investment Authority said the deals were signed during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s state visit to China, which it described as the first by an Omani sultan. Chinese President Xi Jinping received the sultan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 2. Read more.
The largest single fund is an $800 million joint vehicle with China’s state-backed Silk Road Fund, most of which will be invested in Oman. The authority also agreed a $300 million fund with China Merchants Bank, and a combined $735 million with IDG Capital, Templewater, and EW Partners aimed at clean energy, digital technology, smart manufacturing, and utilities.
Nama Holding, the state utilities group, signed battery energy storage projects worth about $1 billion with State Grid International Development, with a combined capacity of one gigawatt. Minerals Development Oman awarded Hongda International a 10-year, $418.7 million contract for the Mazoon copper and gold project.
Wind, logistics, and satellites
Other agreements cover a wind-energy research centre and turbine testing site in Duqm with Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group, which also takes in green ammonia, and a $100 million solar project that includes making solar inverters in Oman.
The logistics group Asyad will build facilities with JD.com at the Muscat Airport Free Zone, Khazaen Economic City, and Sohar Free Zone to link Oman with Gulf and East African markets. Omantel signed a memorandum on deploying Ascend neural processing units and high-performance computing.
A space agreement provides for seven satellites in a first phase, with satellite assembly, integration, and testing in Oman. A separate programme will train 1,000 Omani specialists, sponsor 30 Omanis for postgraduate study in China, and set up a joint space AI laboratory.
The authority’s president, Abdulsalam Al Murshidi, said the agreements marked a shift in relations from trade towards investment partnerships, according to the fund. He said most of the projects would be built in Oman, bringing capital, technology, and manufacturing into the country.
The fund did not give a total value for the package. The amounts it disclosed add up to about $3.35 billion, and several agreements were announced without a figure.
Oman sits at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, where attacks on tankers during the Iran war have shaken Gulf shipping this week. Read more. The sultanate reported a budget surplus on Thursday as gas revenue rose, TT reported, and has passed laws to open an international financial centre. Read more.
