Oman's Investment Authority Signs 23 Deals With Chinese Firms

Oman's sovereign wealth fund signed 23 agreements, memoranda and partnerships with Chinese companies and institutions on Monday, a package spanning energy, mining, logistics, technology and space that both sides valued in the billions of dollars. The documents were executed at the Oman-China Conference, held under the title "Investment Partnership Horizons" at Bank of China's headquarters in Beijing. The Oman Investment Authority organised the event, which ran alongside Sultan Haitham bin Tarik's state visit to China.

Abdulsalam bin Mohammed Al Murshidi, president of the authority, framed the batch as a change of register rather than a new beginning. Trade cooperation with China already existed, he said, and the task was to turn it into investment partnerships. Most of the projects will be built in Oman.

The largest single vehicle is a joint fund with China's Silk Road Fund. A preliminary term sheet sets it at $800 million, or OMR 307.6 million. Most of the money will be deployed in Oman, with the remainder directed to China and other emerging markets.

A second fund, agreed in a preliminary term sheet with China Merchants Bank, is sized at $300 million, or OMR 115.4 million, with both sides contributing equally. It extends a relationship that dates to 2019.

Alongside the funds, the authority signed memoranda of understanding with China Investment Corporation, Bank of China and China International Capital Corporation Limited, and investment partnerships with IDG Capital, Templewater and EWP Partners. Those arrangements include joint funds and capital earmarked for projects inside Oman.

In solar, a preliminary term sheet with BCG and Hoymiles covers a $100 million partnership, equivalent to OMR 38.5 million, to develop projects in the Sultanate and establish a solar inverter manufacturing facility serving Middle East and North Africa markets.

Nama Holding signed a framework agreement with State Grid International Development to build battery energy storage systems in Duqm and Ibri. The project targets 1 gigawatt of capacity and is intended to steady the grid and absorb more renewable generation.

Wind gets a research footing. O-Green and Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group will set up a joint research and development centre and a turbine testing site at the Mawarid Turbines factory in Duqm, adapting turbine designs to Gulf climate conditions and deepening local manufacturing.

Minerals Development Oman and Hongda International signed a $418.7 million contract, worth OMR 161 million, for integrated mining services at the Mazoon Copper and Gold Project in Yanqul. The scope runs from drilling, loading and haulage to ore supply, road construction and supporting facilities.

Asyad Group's agreement with JD.com covers warehousing and logistics, starting with three distribution warehouses at Muscat Airport Free Zone, Khazaen Economic City and Sohar Free Zone. The plan is to tighten logistics links to Gulf and East African markets. A separate memorandum with China International Marine Containers is meant to expand that company's presence in Oman, and a cooperation agreement with HongShan brings in a venture capital and direct investment technology firm.

On the government side, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology and Omantel signed a memorandum with WPS covering the national digital transformation programme. A second memorandum covers the installation of Huawei Ascend neural processing units to strengthen computing capacity and digital infrastructure.

Space is the most specific by headcount. Oman Lens and Star Vision Aerospace signed two agreements that include master's and PhD scholarships in China for 30 Omanis, training for 1,000 Omani specialists, a joint space artificial intelligence laboratory, and the development, launch and operation of seven satellites.

In Beijing talks with President Xi Jinping, Sultan Haitham said China has become Oman's leading trading partner and that Oman is open to a bilateral preferential trade and investment agreement. A joint statement welcomed the cooperation documents signed between sovereign wealth funds and investment institutions during the visit, and said both countries would widen cooperation in solar and wind power, electricity transmission and energy storage.

Read together, the deals show where Gulf capital is heading: not simply into more hydrocarbon offtake but into manufacturing, storage and grid hardware on home soil. The inverter plant, the turbine test bed and the 1-gigawatt battery programme all put Chinese equipment and engineering inside Omani industrial zones. That is a different kind of dependency than a purchase contract, and a harder one to unwind.