(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Oman Technology Fund (OTF), a government-owned fund launched two years ago with a kitty of US$200mn for investing in upcoming technology firms across the world, plans to invest more money in coming years in collaboration with Indian companies, according to H E Dr Ali bin Masoud bin Ali al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
Speaking at a reception hosted in honour of India's Minister of Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu on Monday, H E Sunaidy said there are many areas in the field of IT services where companies from India and Oman could cooperate with each other. The reception was organised by the Indian Embassy in Muscat at Sheraton Oman hotel.
H E Sunaidy said that the government wants to increase the size of the OTF in collaboration with Indian companies.
'OTF now invests in around ten companies every year from 'Silicon Valley'. Recently, we were reviewing investments and what we realised was that many of the companies, where we want to invest in the Valley, have already received investments from Indian firms. So what we want to do now is to increase our investments from ten to 50 companies a year, top-up the fund and go together with Indian companies to Silicon Valley,' he said.
Lauding the contribution made by Indians in Oman, he said there are already more than 3,000 joint Omani-Indian companies in the sultanate, with more than 150 fully owned by Indians.
The Indian minister visited Oman to take part in bilateral trade talks and also to attend the meeting of the India-Oman Joint Commission.
Addressing the gathering, Prabhu said that India is on its way to become a US$5tn economy in next few years, out of which manufacturing will contribute around 20 per cent and services will contribute for around 60 per cent or US$3tn.
'Which means there will be tremendous opportunities for both the sides to increase cooperation in areas such as energy, health, finance, infrastructure, tourism, space, renewable energy, SMEs, food security and services sector,' he said.
Prabhu said that the bilateral trade between India and Oman has increased to US$6.7bn during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 from US$4.13bn in the previous fiscal year. He further added that the visiting Indian delegation had fruitful discussions with authorities in Oman on a number of projects where both countries can complement each other.
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