Intaj Suhar

Oman’s five-year development plan (2016 – 2020) aims to reduce dependence on exporting crude oil and gas by diversifying the economy into other sectors such as manufacturing. Sohar University has been working with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion​ and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC – Sheffield – UK) to develop Intaj-Suhar.

The project focuses on two development main areas:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Manufacturing Tools.

The project aims to:

• Develop provision of technological skills and capability in advanced manufacturing
• Build infrastructure capacity in product design and prototyping
• Support Oman private sector to diversify business

The project draws upon the experience of the Advanced Manufacturing Park (UK), where the anchor tenant is the AMRC- Sheffield. The Sohar manufacturing centre will be a physical site, transit connected, clustering university research with industrial design and production. It will include a technical training centre and a world-class machine tool demonstration centre.

The project supports strategic sector development, through downstream production from existing major industries:

• Aluminium
• Steel
• Composites
• Polymers

The project should help creating jobs, contributing to Oman’s GDP, and attracting inward investment.