Manila and Muscat have concluded negotiations on an investment promotion and protection agreement that could help lift the still-meager investment activity between the Philippines and Oman and eventually pave the way for a trade pact.
In January alone, Oman ranked as the Philippines’ fifth-largest source of foreign direct investments, with $800,000, a significant increase from the aggregate $140,000 recorded from 2021 to 2025.
Despite that growth, the Board of Investments (BOI) said there remains significant room for expansion that the country now wants to tap through the Philippines-Oman Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which is slated to be signed before yearend.
Under the framework, the Philippines and Oman agreed on provisions ‘where investors are treated fairly, protected from discriminatory measures, and provided with greater certainty and transparency in doing business,’ the BOI said.
The deal could also pave the way for a potential preferential trade arrangement that would provide greater market access for goods from both countries, according to the agency.
Currently, the Philippines has only one trade deal with a Middle Eastern economy: the comprehensive economic partnership agreement signed with the United Arab Emirates in January.
BOI said the country wants to attract Omani investments into agribusiness, renewable energy, energy efficiency technologies, infrastructure and public-private partnership projects, as well as innovation projects.
It is also pitching opportunities in information technology and business process management, oil and gas, processed and specialty food, including Halal products and tourism.