Thinking of starting a business in Oman? If you are a resident of the country, or live anywhere in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, you can use the ‘Invest Easy’ platform by the Oman government, to access e-services offered by Oman’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion.
The Invest Easy portal, which is available through their website and a mobile app, provides e-services that help business owners and entrepreneurs set up and manage companies in Oman. Since 2020, foreign investors can own 100 per cent of business in many industries in mainland Oman, after the passing of the Foreign Capital Investment Law (FCIL) by Royal Decree No: 50/2019.
So, if you are looking for more information to explore business opportunities in Oman, here is a list of all the services provided by the Invest Easy platform. It is important to note that while some of the services can be used without the need to log in, other services would require you to create an account on the platform.
All the services offered by Invest Easy in Oman
• Start a business
o Commercial Name availability
o New commercial registration
o Licence Simulator
• Manage a business – Under this section you will be able to view and manage any business application, public announcements and updates to their commercial registration.
• Find business information – Under this section you can access public announcements made for commercial registrations, Business Activities list and other information related to the business sector.
• Close a business – you can complete the process of liquidating a company or cancelling a commercial registration.
• Intellectual Property Services – Here you can access details related to trademark availability and any applications related to Intellectual Property that you may have filed.
• Download document templates – This section allows you to access document templates to follow for business procedures.
How to find out the licensing process for your business
While some services like Commercial Name availability check and licence simulator are available to all users. If you have a business idea and want to know details like requirements you need to fulfil, whether your business activity requires a license and where you can apply for it, the licence simulator will provide all the details.
Note: According to Invest Easy, for licensed activities, certain criteria must be met before a licence is issued and business activities can be started. The Simulator highlights government entities responsible for issuing licences for the chosen activities, as well as the requirements, fees and time it takes to receive the approval.
Unlicensed activities can be started without applying for a license and these activities are regulated after commencing the activities. Currently, there are 76 business activities that do not need licensing.
To use the licence simulator, follow these steps:
• Visit the portal - https://www.business.gov.om/ieasy/wp/en/
• Under services, go to ‘Start a business’ and select ‘Licence simulator’.
• You will be directed to the service page, where you will be informed of the refund policy, company naming rules etc. Click on ‘Start the service’.
• Enter the business activity that you wish to pursue. As you type out the activity name, you will see a dropdown menu from which you can select the business activity that applies to you.
• Select the business location, including governerate, province and city.
• Select legal type – you then need to choose the legal type of the company, for example Limited Liability Company (LLC), Joint Partnership or Sole Proprietorship.
• Provide investor details – You then need to provide the nationality/nationalities of the investors in your company. You can choose from the options ‘Select all (no investor restrictions)’, ‘Omani citizens’, ‘GCC citizens’, ‘Special treatment countries citizens’, ‘Other countries citizens’. You can select one or multiple options.
• You will then be provided with details of the type of licence you can apply for, the approvals you may need, how much it costs and how long it will take to issue the licence.
