Muscat – The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) inaugurated the Middle East’s first International Semiconductor Executive Summit on Wednesday.

The two-day event aims to shed light on the sultanate as an economically and technologically sound destination that attracts investments, besides enhancing efforts to localise technology.

About the summit, H E Dr Ali bin Amer al Shidhani, Undersecretary for Communications and Information Technology in MTCIT, said, “Oman is interested in electronic chips and the semiconductor industry and would like to attract international companies specialised in this industry and train our national cadres.”

He added that hosting the Middle East’s first semiconductor summit confirms Oman’s firm determination to implement digital transformation and ensure the transition to a knowledge-based economy.

He informed that the semiconductor industry’s economic profitability had been estimated at 0.5 per cent of the global GDP in 2020, and 1.1tn semiconductors were sold in 2021. The annual profit of the industry totalled US$500-600bn.

H E Shidhani added that the summit will help attract investments in the communications and information technology sector, as well as facilitate establishment of projects in the sultanate, which in turn will enhance economic diversification and contribute to enhancing the GDP.

The summit will also discuss a number of working papers, including the importance of the environmental design system for the global semiconductor supply chain, the challenges of semiconductor manufacturing, and investment opportunities in information and communication technology in Oman.