Khazaen Economic City
Barka / Muscat corridor · OPAZ (regulator); developer Khazaen Economic City LLC; operator Oman Logistics Company LLC (both Asyad Group/OIA), per RD 44/2023 Art. IV
Logistics, warehousing, food and pharma manufacturers and distributors that want a GCC base attached to Muscat with dry-port customs facilitation, long tax holidays and room to build at scale.
Freelancers, consultancies and e-commerce SMEs seeking cheap bundled license + visa packages or instant remote formation; Khazaen's model is land/warehouse-based and negotiated per project.
01Capability profile
02Where Khazaen sits
Khazaen: 98th percentile (AED 2,330) · Licence + registration, AED.
Khazaen: 8th percentile (21 days) · Total estimated days from application to operational.
Absolute maximum visa allocation. Values above 500 clipped to the right edge so the bulk of the distribution stays readable.
Khazaen: Moderate · Corporate bank account opening difficulty. Each cell is one zone.
03Costs
- Base licence
- AED 1,500
- Registration
- AED 830
- Renewal (year 2+)
- AED 1,500
- 3-year total
- AED 5,330
- 2-year visa cost
- AED 3,100
- Visa renewal
- AED 1,800
- Visa cancellation
- AED 980
- Dependent / spouse visa
- AED 880
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04Visas & workspace
- Family sponsorship
- Not available
- Freelancer permit
- Not available
- Processing time
- ~10 days
- Virtual office
- No
- Flexi-desk
- No
- Dedicated office
- No
- Warehouse
- No
- Industrial unit
- No
05Banking & setup
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to account
- ~21 days
- Minimum deposit
- AED 28,620
- UBO filing
- Required
- AML / KYC
- standard
- Documents & applicationPassport, visa, business plan — ~3–5 days
- Licence issued~5 business days after submission
- Bank account activeAdditional ~21 days · Moderate banking
- OperationalTypically ~21 days, up to ~56 days
06Jurisdiction & ecosystem
This zone offers physical-office options sufficient for a standard QFZP substance posture, though the bar still applies at the entity level (CTGFZP1).
QFZP, audit, mainland-permit and substance values are sourced where the zone authority or FTA publishes them, and inferred from published zone characteristics otherwise. How we determine these values.
07Strengths & limitations
- ['Only OPAZ-zone economic city directly attached to the Muscat metro area - midway between Muscat Airport (~30 min) and Sohar Port (~2 hrs) on the Batinah Expressway'
- "Oman's first customs-bonded inland dry port plus free-zone component: 0% import/re-export duties and 100% foreign ownership"
- '10-year corporate tax holiday renewable up to 30 years under RD 38/2025 for qualifying activities'
- 'Low land/operating cost versus UAE zones - ready warehouses from ~OMR 1
- 650/month on the open market and usufruct land on negotiated terms'
- 'Proven traction: >RO 800M (~USD 2bn) cumulative investment by mid-2025 across pharma
- food and logistics
- with Silal central market and Opal Biopharma anchored']
- No published schedule of charges - license, land and facility pricing is negotiated case-by-case, slowing cost benchmarking
- Not a plug-and-play formation zone: no flexi-desk/virtual packages, so SMEs and service startups wanting a desk + visa bundle should look at UAE zones or KOM
- Still under construction in phases - supporting retail, residential and social infrastructure is ramping up, and CIT exemption excludes construction, transport, telecom, finance and insurance activities
Not ideal for: Freelancers, consultancies and e-commerce SMEs seeking cheap bundled license + visa packages or instant remote formation; Khazaen's model is land/warehouse-based and negotiated per project.
08Tax considerations
Will you need audited accounts even if this zone doesn't require them?
FTA corporate-tax filing typically expects audited accounts for revenue above AED 50M, and banks often request them at much lower thresholds.
Do any of your customers, suppliers, or shareholders meet the FTA's related-party definition?
Related-party transactions need transfer-pricing documentation and may push otherwise-qualifying income into the 9% bracket.
These prompts are due-diligence questions, not tax advice. Confirm every answer with a UAE-licensed tax advisor before incorporating.
09About this data
Khazaen data is sourced from official zone authority publications, government fee schedules, and where available, verified against direct communications with the zone. All figures in AED.
- Location
- Barka / Muscat corridor
- Authority
- OPAZ (regulator); developer Khazaen Economic City LLC; operator Oman Logistics Company LLC (both Asyad Group/OIA), per RD 44/2023 Art. IV
- Last verified
- 2026-07-18
- Confidence
- high
- Methodology
- How we score →
- QFZP eligibility (0% corporate tax)Secondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Audit requirementSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Economic substanceSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Mainland trading permitSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
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