Last week Oman swore in Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as its new ruler. He takes over following the death of his cousin Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, who had headed the country since 1970 and was the world’s longest-serving monarch.
Sultan Haitham faces the challenge, common to other leaders in the region, of how to diversify the country’s economy away from a reliance on oil and gas. With oil production currently capped by Opec, the IMF estimated the country’s gross domestic product growth for 2019 at 0.3%.
