Oman's negative list: what foreigners cannot own, and how to check.

Since the Foreign Capital Investment Law came into force in January 2020, a foreign investor can own 100% of an Omani company in most activities. Alongside it, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion keeps a list of activities reserved for Omani investors. If your activity is on that list, a foreign-owned company cannot hold it, at any ownership percentage.

1. What the list is

People call it the negative list. Legally it is a list of activities in which foreign capital may not invest, issued by ministerial decision under the investment law. It is a list of activities, not sectors and not nationalities. The question is never “is retail open to foreigners?” but “is this activity code reserved?”

It sits on top of a separate question that founders often mix up with it: whether you, personally, are eligible to hold a foreign investment licence. In October 2024 the ministry said it had suspended new licence applications from residents working in professions classified as limited-skill. That is a rule about who can invest, not what they can invest in, and its current status should be confirmed case by case.

2. The three decisions behind it

Two of the activities added in 2023 — poultry hatcheries and poultry slaughtering, and live-livestock wholesale — carry an exception for projects with large production capacity. Exceptions like this are why a summary is a starting point, not an answer.

3. What is on it

The reserved activities fall into recognisable groups:

• Traditional crafts and heritage products: halwa, khanjar and kummah production, frankincense water and oil, incense, pottery, silver, copper, leather, palm-leaf, wood, stone, gypsum and bone handicrafts, traditional cosmetics and perfumes.
• Small retail: grocery stores, fresh produce, meat and fish retail, drinking-water retail, construction-scrap stores, mobile phone sales, used-vehicle sales.
• Vehicle and fuel services: car washing and lubrication, fuel stations, LPG filling stations, collection of used batteries and oils.
• Fisheries and agriculture: marine fishing, freshwater aquaculture, beekeeping, plant nurseries.
• Real estate brokerage, valuation and management.
• Intermediary services: customs clearance offices and labour recruitment offices.
• Personal and small services: hairdressing, skin care, laundry, tailoring of traditional and other clothing, mobile cafes, event and furniture rental, mailbox rental, public scribe services, printing and copying.

Read as a whole, the list protects small-scale, low-capital, high-employment Omani livelihoods: the family grocery, the workshop, the man with a tow truck.

4. What is not on it

Almost everything a foreign SME would call its core business: manufacturing, engineering, industrial contracting, wholesale and import, logistics, technology and software, professional and management consultancy, education and most healthcare, and tourism beyond the small-scale end. If your business is one of these, the reserved list is unlikely to be your problem. Your activity code, Omanisation band and sector approvals still are.

5. The two traps that catch foreign founders

Trap 1: real estate brokerage, valuation and management

One line catches more foreign entrants than the rest of the list together. If your plan involves managing property, brokering leases or sales, or valuing property, it cannot sit in a foreign-owned company, whatever percentage you propose. This trips up property groups, facilities-management businesses that drift into leasing, and European founders who assume a service that is ordinary at home is open here.

Trap 2: the business that drifts onto the list

The more expensive trap is a company whose licensed activity is open, but whose actual revenue sits on the list. A wholesaler that starts selling to walk-in customers. A hotel services company that opens a laundry to the street. A logistics firm that starts renting out equipment. The licence says one thing and the invoices say another. A bank compliance officer or a tax auditor reads the invoices, not the licence.

6. Existing businesses and acquisitions

Each update has protected businesses that already existed: foreign-owned projects operating when an activity was added may continue. They cannot, however, be transferred to someone else without written approval from the minister or his delegate.

That matters if you are buying an existing Omani company. A grandfathered position is an asset with a consent condition attached, and the consent is discretionary. Check every activity on the target’s commercial registration against the current list, price the risk, and do not sign a share purchase agreement that pays on completion without that consent in hand.

7. Fronting: say it once, clearly

Every reserved list produces the same idea: put the licence in an Omani national’s name and run the business behind him with a side agreement. The investment law sets fines of OMR 20,000 to OMR 150,000 for breaching its provisions, and published reporting of the penalty regime applies them to the Omani who fronts as well as to the foreign investor. Your side agreement is unenforceable, so your nominee owns your business in the only sense a court recognises.

If your activity is on the list, the honest options are to change the activity, to supply the Omani businesses that hold those licences instead of competing with them, or not to enter that line of business.

8. Free zones use a different list

Free zone activity lists are a separate taxonomy from the mainland one. When a zone says an activity is permitted, that is a statement about the zone’s own list, not about the mainland reserved list. Two consequences: a zone company is generally outside the 123, and if you later add a mainland company, the activity has to be selected again from the mainland list and checked fresh. See our guide to Oman’s free zones in 2026.

9. How to check your activity, in five steps

1. Write the invoice first. Draft the first three invoices you expect to issue, in the words you would really use. Not “consultancy services” but “supply and commissioning of two filtration units with six months’ maintenance”.
2. Find the code that describes the invoices, not your company or your group. Search the activity list on the Oman Business Platform by keyword in English and Arabic.
3. Check each code against the reserved list, including the 2023 and 2024 additions and any capacity exceptions.
4. Check what else the code triggers: sector approvals (health, education, environment, agriculture and others) and the Omanisation band that follows it.
5. Get it confirmed before you file. A code that is wrong is rejected at registration, which is cheap. A code that is nearly right passes registration and fails later at the bank or at audit, which is not. Our article on opening a business bank account explains why.

Frequently asked

How many activities are closed to foreign investors in Oman?

123, according to the ministry’s announcement of Ministerial Decision 435/2024 in August 2024, which added 28 activities to the list created by Ministerial Decision 209/2020 and amended by 364/2023.

Can a foreigner own a real estate brokerage in Oman?

No. Real estate brokerage, valuation and management are reserved for Omani investors, and no ownership percentage or approval opens them to a foreign-owned company.

Can I hold a reserved activity with an Omani partner owning 51%?

No. The list is absolute: a company with foreign capital cannot hold a reserved activity at any percentage. Putting the licence in an Omani name with a side agreement breaches the investment law and exposes both parties to fines of OMR 20,000 to OMR 150,000.

Does the negative list apply in Oman's free zones?

Free zones use their own activity lists, so a zone company is generally outside the mainland reserved list. If you add a mainland company later, the activity must be checked again against the mainland list.

What happens to foreign-owned businesses already operating in an activity that is added to the list?

They may continue to operate, but they cannot be transferred to others without written approval from the minister or his delegate.