§ Mr. Gouldasked the Prime Minister whether, in respect of the £300 million contract secured by Cementation Ltd. to build a university in Oman any other British firms requested the assistance of Her Majesty's Government in the negotiations or were notified of the possibility of obtaining the contract.
§ The Prime MinisterThe decision of the Omani Government to proceed with the establishment of the Sultan Qaboos university received wide publicity and the Department of Trade and Industry issued a notice through its export intelligence service in April 1981 drawing attention to the project. It subsequently issued further notices. No United Kingdom construction company had approached the Department about the project prior to the decision of the Omani Government to award a turnkey contract to design and build the university to Cementation International Ltd. The only British companies to register an interest with the Government had been a number of consulting firms interested in a design contract.