Características de la Balsa

Oman has a long history of trade contacts and political relations with many countries in the Arab world, the Indian sub-continent, the Far East and East Africa. Oman was the first Arab nation to establish diplomatic relations with the United States of America (USA) in the first half of 19th century when Oman was ruled by Sayyed Said bin

' The Development Council was dissolved during 1996 and its authorities and responsibilities were transferred to the Cabinet vide Royal Decree no. 7/96 (Oman, 1996g).

" The Financial Affairs and the Natural Gas Councils were dissolved in 1996, and the Financial Affairs and the Energy Resource Council was set up in their place vide Royal Decree no. 60/96 (Oman, 1996i). ^ Majlis Ash'Shura is equivalent to a peoples representative body.

Issued twice a month in Arabic language by the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

Sultan of Ya’aruba dynasty. By this time Oman also had treaty relationship with Great Britain and friendly relations with France. However, for about four decades (1932-1970), under the rule of the previous ruler Sultan Said bin Taimur, Oman was completely isolated politically and so when the present ruler His Majesty Sultan Qaboos came to power in 1970 Oman had to win diplomatic recognition from the intemational community

{ibid..^2\).

The Sultanate of Oman joined the Arab League in 1971 and in the same year it was admitted as a member of the United Nations, the IMF, and the World Bank. In the following year Oman became a member of the Islamic Conference Organisation and in 1973 Oman became a member of the Non-Aligned Group of Nations. Oman was a founder-member of the six nation Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) which was set up in 1981^ (Kechichian, 1995;pp.55-56).

Oman is also a member of a large number of Gulf, Arab, Islamic and Intemational Organisations. It has diplomatic relations with about 122 countries, and has a large number of bilateral agreements with a number of countries covering social, economic, cultural and political aspects (Oman, 1994b:pp.49-56). It has an access agreement^ 'with the USA and has close military and political ties with the United Kingdom (Kechichian,

op. cfr.:pp.89 and 147). Oman has been accorded observer status in the World Trade

Organisation and its application for membership of the organisation is being processed. Although Oman’s economy is oriented towards oil exports, Oman has never been a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). But Oman has always managed to apply the agreements reached within OPEC, to the extent they were beneficial to Omani interests, in its dealings with the oil multinationals (A1 Yousef,

1995:p.30).

’ The other members of the GCC are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

^ This agreement provides propositioning of supplies and access to a limited number of military facilities

on a prior approval basis {ibid.).

8.5 Economy

Before the beginning of commercial exploitation and export of oil in 1967, Oman

was a typical low-income agricultural country. In 1965, agriculture and fisheries

contributed 61 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), whilst industry contributed 23 per cent of GDP and 16 per cent of GDP was derived from services (World Bank, 1987:p.207). In terms of employment, 62 per cent of the labour force was employed in agriculture in 1965, while industry and services employed 15 per cent and 23 per cent,

respectively {ibid. .^.265). And in 1960 only 4 per cent of the population lived in urban

areas {ibid. :p.267).

Oil was discovered in commercial quantities in 1962 and production and exports started in 1967. In 1995, average daily production reached 852,000 barrels, equivalent to an annual production of 311 million barrels, of which 284 million barrels were exported. Although four companies, PDO, Elf Aquitaine (ELF), Occidental Group (OXY) and Japan Petroleum Exploration Company (JAPEX) were producing oil in 1995, about 90 per cent was produced by PDO (Oman, 1996b:pp. 185-202).

Approximately 242,266 million standard cu. ft. of gas was produced in 1995, all of

which was consumed domestically {ibid.).

According to the data obtained from the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals, estimates of expected oil reserves stood at 5.2 billion barrels at the end of 1996 and gas reserves stood at 17 trillion cu. ft.

In 1995, the oil sector accounted for 38 per cent of nominal GDP, 77 per cent of government revenues and 78 per cent of total export earnings^ (Oman, 1996b).

Compiled from Statistical Year Book 1995 (Oman, 1996b), also see Appendix table 1.

From 1970 onwards Oman has followed a vigorous development policy to bring about rapid socio-economic transformation. In 1976 Oman launched its First FYP and by 1995 Oman had executed four five-year development plans. Currently, the Fifth FYP (1996-2000) is being implemented.

As a result of rapid economic growth, Oman had a Gross National Product (GNP) per capita' of US$ 4,820 in 1995, which places it among the Upper-middle-income group of countries (World Bank, 1997b:p.8). In terms of output, agriculture contributed 3 per cent, industry 47 per cent^ of which petroleum activities accounted for about 38 per cent, and services contributed about 50 per cent of the value-added in 1995 in nominal GDP (Oman, 1996b;p.384). The high priority accorded to education and health care facilities in development planning has resulted in Oman’s Human Development Index (HDI) standing at 0.718 in 1994. This places Oman among countries with Medium human development (UNDP, 1997:pp.l47 and 165).

The progress attained by Oman in the fields of economic and social development since 1970 is shown by Appendix table 1.