India and Oman will be looking to implement the India-Oman free trade agreement, signed on December 18, within the next three months, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
Under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Oman has offered zero-duty access on over 98 of its tariff lines or product categories, covering 99.38 per cent of India's exports to the Gulf country. All major labour-intensive sectors, including gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles, will attract nil duty. These goods, at present, attract import duties in the range of 5-100 per cent in Oman.
On the other hand, India is offering duty concessions on 77.79 per cent of its total tariff lines (12,556), which covers 94.81 per cent of India's imports from Oman by value. The Oman-US trade deal was finalised in 2006, but was implemented in January 2009. "The Oman minister and I have discussed that we will try to operationalise this agreement within three months," Goyal told reporters here.
When asked about the areas where Indian businesses can invest in Oman, the minister said sectors like steel, energy, education and healthcare hold huge potential. "The sectors which require natural resources will be the ones where Indian firms would like to invest. A large steel investment is coming up for producing green steel," he said, adding that there is a lot of interest in Oman to collaborate with India because they have large land banks.
One can explore investment in the energy sector, where energy can be converted into green hydrogen or green ammonia and exported to the rest of the world, which will provide Indians an opportunity for exports and create jobs for Indian people, he pointed out. "There is a huge amount of potential for processing of large volumes of marble...huge amounts of investment interests in education, healthcare...some people are also looking at battery manufacturing in Oman," Goyal said.
Oman's businesses, too, are very excited about collaborating with Indian businesses, the minister said. "Already, we have received interest from an Omani dairy to have a joint venture with Amul," he said, adding that he has invited Omani firms and the Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest in India.
Also read: Ayurvedic medicines debut in India-Oman trade pact
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