Activities reserved for Omanis: how a foreign investor checks an activity before forming a company in Oman

The first question in setting up a company in Oman is not the legal form or the location. It is the activity itself: may a foreign investor carry it out? Usually yes, but there is a specific list reserved for Omanis, and an investor who does not check it early may find the problem after signing a lease or hiring staff.

The rule: full foreign ownership

According to Oman Observer, citing the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (May 2024), the Oman Business platform lets a foreign investor own more than 1,700 commercial and industrial activities at 100%. The investor is exempt from a minimum capital requirement, pays commercial registration fees on the same basis as Omani investors, and must employ at least one Omani.

The exception: the Decision 209/2020 list

Ministerial Decision 209/2020 set out the activities a foreign investor may not carry out, and it has been amended more than once. The latest amendment we found is Decision 435/2024, which added 28 activities and brought the total reserved for Omanis to 123, according to Times of Oman and Muscat Daily (1 September 2024). We found no later amendment in the sources we reviewed, but that does not rule one out, so check the official list on the day you apply.

Examples added in the 2024 amendment

Activities published by Times of Oman include grocery stores, sale of used vehicles, mobile cafes, skin care services, rental of event supplies and furniture, plant nurseries and cultivation of live plants, freshwater fish farming, management of cooking gas (LPG) filling stations, collection of used batteries and oils, and several handicrafts: incense, frankincense water and oil, leather, silver, pottery, palm fronds and wood. These are examples, not the full list.

Who is exempt?

According to the same report, investment projects already operating when the decision took effect are exempt. But they may not be transferred to others without written approval from the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion or his delegate, under Article 2 of Decision 209/2020. If you are buying an existing business in one of these activities from a foreign investor, that approval is a condition before you pay.

How to check your activity in practice

First, describe your activity precisely as it appears in the official activity classification, not in marketing terms: a restaurant serving coffee is not a mobile cafe. Second, compare that description with the official list in force. Third, if your activity is close to a reserved one, look for a permitted activity that serves the same idea, such as manufacturing instead of retail. Do not use a front in someone else's name, which puts your whole investment at risk.

This step comes before the lease, hiring and choice of legal form, because it decides whether the project is possible at all in the shape you have in mind. It is part of analysing the project before any feasibility study.

Source: Times of Oman: Commerce ministry reserves 28 more activities for Omanis, prohibits foreign investment (القرار 435/2024) — 2024-09-01 · Muscat Daily: 28 new activities banned from foreign investment — 2024-09-01 · Oman Observer: Process simplified for foreign investors (أكثر من 1,700 نشاط بملكية كاملة) — 2024-05-11