and Tourism praises the Royal Directives to launch the Oman Future Fund, and it starts to set criteria and evaluation matrix for tourism projects

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism MHT, praises the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq – may Allah preserve and protect him – to launch an investment fund- the “Oman Future Fund”, with a capital of RO 2 billion, to enhance the economic activity and encouraging the private sector to enter into partnerships or finance viable investment projects in the sectors of economic diversification targeted by Oman Vision 2040, including the tourism sector.

This came in a statement by His Excellency Salim bin Mohammed Al Mahrouqi, Minster of Heritage and Tourism, who pointed out that, the directives of His Majesty to establish the fund represents a strategic path to strengthen the constant national endeavors towards achieving the vision objectives to build a diversified and sustainable economy. He also pointed out that, launching of a national fund of this level will be an effective tool in financing tourism investment, and contributes to overcoming the challenges facing investors in this sector, accelerating the implementation of projects in a way that supports the well building of a diversified and integrated tourism sector.

He emphasized that, the founding of this fund will also considered as an important step to enable the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism to achieve its goals in the sector, and to create new opportunities for ambitious youth and entrepreneurs, to achieve their aspirations into successful projects that can contribute to create new job opportunities, as well as increasing the investment volume in the tourism sector.

In coinciding with the launching of Oman Future Fund, and in line with the objectives of this fund in evaluating projects in accordance to commercial bases, His Excellency the Minister of Heritage and Tourism pointed out that , MHT immediately began setting a comprehensive matrix for evaluating projects that are eligible for financing, taking into account the strategic importance of the project, its location, elements of sustainability, operation , its total cost of investment, its value added , local content, implementation plan, innovation, and the possibility of linking the project vertically and horizontally with supply chains, intertwining with other sectors, and the transferring of knowledge as well .