Oman 2014
Oman is a nation in the Middle East located on the Arabian Peninsula, bordered by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. It has a long coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The country is home to diverse landscapes, from deserts to mountains to palm-fringed beaches.
The population of Oman is estimated at 4.8 million people in 2021, with an estimated growth rate of 2.5%. The official language is Arabic and English is widely spoken as a second language. Islam is the majority religion in Oman, with 85% of the population practicing it.
Oman has a rich cultural heritage with traditional music, dance and cuisine all playing an important role in everyday life. The country’s economy relies heavily on oil exports, but it has diversified its sources of income by investing in tourism and manufacturing industries such as pharmaceuticals and textiles. See Countryaah for a list of countries starting with O.
Omanis enjoy a high standard of living due to government initiatives such as free healthcare for citizens and generous subsidies for housing and education. The government also places great emphasis on preserving its cultural heritage through regulations that protect traditional architecture and monuments from development projects.
Yearbook 2014
Oman. Oman population in 2020 is estimated at 5,106,637. Sultan Qabus ibn Said traveled to Germany in July where he was told to undergo medical tests. No details were announced, but it was rumored that the 73-year-old head of state and government received cancer treatment. In November he greeted himself via TV that he could not attend the celebration of his birthday or National Day, because he was still abroad. He said the treatment produced good results.
Oman received criticism from a special UN reporter who ruled that the right to gather in public place did not in practice exist in the country. The government was found to have a constant focus on order and stability, at the price of the right of association and the right to gather became suffering. Citizens expressed that they wanted peaceful reforms, not revolution, said reporter Maina Kiai, in charge of the right of association and assembly.
According to topb2bwebsites, Oman continued as a mediator and intermediary between the US and Iran in the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. However, as the only one of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the country did not contribute to the US-led alliance’s airstrikes against the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria.
Economic conditions
Like all Gulf countries, the Oman lives on oil, but its particularity is that it also has large reserves of natural gas (about 800 billion m³), in which the government is investing heavily. In fact, if on the one hand the oil reserves will allow, at the current rate of extraction (over 42 million tonnes per year), just over 15 years of production, on the other hand the extraction of natural gas is increasing considerably. Already since 1995 the government has launched a post-oil conversion program: major industrial projects have been promoted, such as the creation of petrochemical, metallurgical (for the production of aluminum) and chemical (fertilizer) plants, the most ambitious of which, however, were questioned. The imported raw materials arrive through the new port of Raysūt, near Ṣalāla, a port that is expected to compete with those of Aden and Dubai in the future. Finally, another important aspect of the sultanate’s most recent five-year plans is represented by the ‘omanisation’ of the economy: the attempt to employ increasing shares of local labor, thanks to a system of taxation imposed on foreign workers.
Overall, and despite the level reached by GDP per capita, the country’s economy remains in a state of heavy backwardness and continues to maintain a strong dependence on the energy sector (energy sources contribute about 40 % to the formation of GDP – but they employ just over 2 % of the workforce – and 80 % of the value of exports). The production diversification policy is encountering considerable difficulties in establishing itself (construction of a container terminal in Ṣalāla, plants for the production of fertilizers and other modest initiatives), while the pressure on scarce agricultural resources remains high (some international sources estimate 50% the population involved in agriculture and related activities).
