Oman Investment Authority clarifies operational parameters

Muscat: The Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has issued a detailed clarification, explaining its operations and areas of focus.

The Oman News Agency (ONA), reported that the OIA had said that 2019 was the most successful year in its history in terms of investments, as the OIA posted average revenues of 9.5 per cent.

In response to a message being circulated about the OIA's nature of work and its performance, the Authority said in a statement, "The OIA entered into new investments in the fields of space, food technology and infrastructure and enhanced its investment position in different markets in China, Japan and South Korea, with the number of countries in which the OIA has investments rising to more than 25."

"The OIA also enhanced the State’s general budget without affecting its own financial position and without being compelled to compromise any of its assets. The OIA has been able to take safe investment decisions, either by clearing some of its assets concurrently upon the shutting down of global firms associated to those assets and by safely exiting the investments that have vague, unorganized data or cancelling partnerships that constitute no positive results to minimize risk proportions and spare the OIA possible losses. The OIA localised some techniques in the Sultanate and re-channeled some investments into different sectors and new markets, the statement said.

"As for loans of state-owned companies, borrowing is among normal business practices and that it is the least costly instrument of funding, notably at a time when companies are taking up new projects and expanding in operations without consuming their capital or available liquidity and without ledgering the burden of financing in disfavor of the state’s general finance."

In this context, the statement explained that a company may opt for investing its available liquidity to gain higher returns compared to the value it pays as cost of low-interest debt it receives. Also, financing parties offer their loans based on feasibility of projects to be funded to ensure the borrower’s ability to refund the loan and its associated expenses, noting that firms’ borrowing does not necessarily mean their susceptibility to loss.
 
"The OIA espouses a clearly-defined policy of reporting offences codenamed “Whistleblowing Policy”, which provides a safe communication channel that guarantees confidentiality and speed of access to the Auditing Committee that directly reports to the Board of Directors, without divulging the identity of the reporter. The reporters can send their findings via email ([email protected]) or call the OIA hotline (24745700)."