Oman Wanfang, the main developer of the China-Oman Industrial Park at Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ), has said Chinese investors are planning to establish a $98m blankets and carpets manufacturing plant in the park.

The plant will have six production lines to manufacture blankets and carpets made from synthetic fibres, a local media report said.

The investors plan to procure the synthetic fibres from China until they become locally available from the planned downstream complex in the Duqm SEZ.

The proposed plant, to be built on a 20-hectare site within the park, will be capable of manufacturing an estimated 12 million pieces of blankets and carpets annually.

Oman Wanfang signed a $3.7bn, 30-year agreement with Duqm Special Economic Zone Authority (Sezad) in 2016 to rent and develop 1,170 hectares of land within the zone.

Other investments have continued to be made in Duqm. Local group Assarain Concrete Products last week signed a 25-year lease agreement for a 60,000 square-metre plot with Duqm Industrial Land Company (DILC), a subsidiary of Port of Duqm Company.

Assarain plans to build a block-making plant that will produce “high-quality building blocks, interlocking tiles and other special products”. Another plant will manufacture kerbstones and paving slabs to meet increasing demand within Duqm and the wider Al-Wusta governorate, a company statement said.

Sezad is developing the 2,000 square-kilometre economic zone to boost the economy of Oman’s central Al-Wusta governorate.

Unlike the country’s southern and northern regions, the governorate is underdeveloped, and Sezad is tasked to create a city that includes residential, commercial and industrial complexes.