India invites investments from Omani companies

The Indian government on Monday invited Omani companies to invest in India and benefit from Make in India programme aimed to encourage manufacturing, an official statement said.

The invitation was made by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu during the 8th India-Oman Joint Commission meeting in Muscat, where he highlighted several steps taken by the government to promote an investment-friendly environment in India, the Commerce Ministry statement said. 

"India has launched several investment friendly programmes like Make in India with a trillion dollar business opportunity in the country," he said, according to the statement.

"Participated in the India Oman Joint Commission Meeting today (Monday). Had very positive discussions on areas of mutual cooperation and growth like space, renewable energy, Startups, SMEs, Food security, tourism and services sector," Prabhu tweeted. 

"The Sultanate of Oman is a strategic partner of India in the Gulf. India's major exports to Oman include petroleum (crude & products),basmati rice, iron and steel, ceramics, electronic components, etc. and it imports petroleum products, spacecraft & parts,bulk minerals, ores etc," he said in another tweet. 

Bilateral trade between India and Oman has increased to $6.7 billion in 2017-18 from $4.13 billion in 2014-15.

Indian financial institutions such as the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, HDFC and ICICI Securities, as well as public sector undertakings like Air India, life Insurance Corporation, Telecommunications Consultants India, Engineers India and National Building Construction Company (NBCC) have their presence in Oman.

"India-Oman Joint Investment Fund, a joint venture between State Bank of India and State General Reserve Fund of Oman, a special purpose vehicle to invest in India, has been operational and the initial corpus of $100 million has been fully utilized," the ministry said.

The joint investment fund has raised another $220 million in the second tranche which is being invested, it added.