Today it is an industrial oil town with a notable port. The town has been looking to increase tourism in the area with the Oman Tourism Development Company, and is now central to the state's development goals, with a 25-year plan formulated in 1995 to increase its population to 100,000 by 2020. The port has undergone development and a shipbuilding facility to facilitate the port was built; development has been ongoing by the Jan De Nul Group, improving the breakwaters and quay walls. In March 2005, Oman's Ministry of Transport and Communications awarded the Parsons Corporation a contract to study and design a new Duqm Jaaluni Airport in hopes of increasing tourism. Oman Air has begun services at the airport on July 23, 2014. The planned Oman Railways project will also include a link to Duqm Port. In 2008, Intercontinental Hotels announced they were to build a 213-room hotel, Crowne Plaza Duqm. A coal-fired power plant has also been approved in Duqm with the aim of reducing dependency on natural gas, and Oman has formed a $2 billion deal with South Korea to facilitate it. Duqm's port and industrial zone has also received heavy Chinese investment.