The Middle East

At a conference in Riyadh in May 2012, Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al Zayani, the secretary-general of the GCC, addressed the numerous changes that have taken place in the region in recent years. “The new political, security and military challenges – as well as insecurity in the Arab region and the changes in the regional and global forces of power...

With the introduction of Islamic financial products, regarded as allowing the sultanate to retain valuable investment dollars, the emergence of new takaful (Islamic insurance) firms raises the question of how new insurance providers can thrive in a small market.

The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector has a pivotal role to play in any emerging economy and is an engine of growth for the private sector. Oman’s government has taken unprecedented initiatives to promote growth of SMEs and thereby working towards creating a diversified economy.

Recent regulatory changes aimed at Oman’s banking sector are likely to cause significant shifts in the lending market in 2014, with potential impacts including increased credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and perhaps a broader jump in the pace of loan growth and the competitiveness of the lending market. The changes are...

In recent years, we have spoken of the need to invest in a modern and efficient infrastructure throughout all the sectors of our land, and we are now regularly seeing the fruits of those labours. Better communications, whether by land or sea or air, more advanced technology, further development of our energy resources from which we fund our...

Petroleum wealth in Oman means the government has little need to sell bonds, which is the primary reason a robust market for debt securities has yet to develop. While the sultanate does sell bonds from time to time, the amounts are usually small and there are no regular schedules for any instruments other than short-term debt used by banks to...