Thursday 28 / November / 2024
Muscat: The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) received the Government Achievements Award at Arab Digital Government Awards 2023, which was announced at a ceremony held in Dubai.
The Arab Digital Government Award is granted to Arab government entities that stand out for delivering innovative and effective digital applications and solutions to improve the quality of government services, increase customer satisfaction, and enhance transparency.
This award seeks to increase the quality standard of digital government products and services, contribute to enhancing competitiveness to improve the performance of government bodies and facilitate practising business, as well as adopt international standards in the digital transformation journey. This contributes to uplifting the efficiency of the government sector, in addition to stimulating development and ensuring the constantly introducing of innovative initiatives. This contributes to improving the quality of services in government institutions.
Winning this award comes as a testament to Opaz's continuous commitment towards promoting innovation, development and the use of modern technologies to improve the experience of investors and beneficiaries of the services provided by Opaz and its affiliated zones, and adhere to best practices. It also marks an acknowledgement of Opaz's persistent efforts towards digital transformation through its development of electronic applications aimed at simplifying government procedures and providing fast, safe and inclusive services to investors.
Opaz won this award in return for providing the land allocation service electronically to the investors interested to invest in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad). The service can be accessed through the online portal (eoss.duqm.gov.om) from anywhere around the world to register in Opaz digital portal and submit a land usufruct request.
This service aims to facilitate and speed up the procedures for investors, save time and effort, and achieve transparency for all investors in Sezad with a smooth selection of the plot of land directly as soon as the investor specifies the type of project and the required plot of land. The system displays the master plan for the investor, demonstrating the lands available based on the application’s data.
Through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which has become one of the modern technologies used in achieving the governance of procedures, the new service will enable the investor to make the investment decision easier by choosing the appropriate location while providing the investor with a spatial description that enhances his investment decision.
The service is distinguished by allowing investors to select the plot of land in interactive maps for more than 800 different economic activities. It also brings other features, including the possibility of measuring the distance between the selected land and the key landmarks in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, providing accurate information about the level of land’s altitude above sea level, merging joint lands, getting full measurements of lengths and spaces, determining the geographical location coordinates, and sharing the approximate distance of the land from the nearby utilities such as electricity, water, telecommunications, and roads.
Investors can also access the service by searching and inquiring about information on interactive maps, printing maps, obtaining modern satellite images of the area, data of the masterplan, public services and nearby landmarks. Likewise, investors can request land with different specifications, as concerned employees will act upon the investor’s request.
It is worth noting that Opaz as an authority supervising all special economic zones, free zones and industrial zones in the Sultanate of Oman is currently working on a project for the central online platform for investor services in Opaz-affiliated zones. Through this platform, all government and operational services will be provided, while considering the integration between this platform and other service platforms to increase the quality of services provided to investors.
