Oman’s Ministry of Economy has allocated OMR 15 million ($39 million) to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) projects for 2025, of which OMR10 million ($26 million) will be allocated to government agencies and OMR5 million ($13 million) will be given to the governorates.
The news was announced during the “Artificial Intelligence Economics Initiative 2024” forum. held in Muscat. The event brought together government agencies and Omani companies specialised in the field of AI.
The forum was held under the patronage of HH Sayyid Dr. Kamil bin Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Secretary General at the Secretariat General of the Council of Ministers.
“This forum comes out of the belief in the necessity of urging national efforts to keep pace with this global rapid development in technologies and to prepare the economy to be more flexible, responsive to changes, and more capable of investing in opportunities, which pushes the Sultanate of Oman to be a leader in AI and future technologies,” said Dr Said bin Mohammed al Saqri, Minister of Economy, in his speech.
The country’s 10th five-year development plan (2021-2025) has also underlined in its goal related to stimulating economic activity the need to encourage the contribution of small and medium enterprises in innovation activities, the knowledge economy, AI, and specialized markets.
The plan also amplifies the contribution of the digital economy to the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2040 to about 10%.