Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Board of Directors of the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) held its first meeting for the year 2023, chaired by Dr Ali bin Masoud Al-Sunaidy, Chairman of the board, at the authority’s headquarters in Muscat.
During its meeting, the Board of Directors approved the allocation of industrial land for the Public Establishment of Industrial Estates "Madayn" within the lands of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad). The board also reviewed the proposed amendments project of the bylaw of Urban Planning and Building Permits, to facilitate investment and ensure the consistency of the overall appearance of existing buildings with the development of this regulation to be applied in new economic zones, free zones and various industrial zones. The board also discussed the controls, rules and registration of engineering consultancy offices and their classification in Sezad, to be applied to the rest of the special economic zones, free and industrial zones in the future.
The Board of Directors also approved a mechanism for signing usufruct contract agreements with government entities in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm and unifying the usufruct fees for commercial lands allocated for petrol station projects and their annexes located in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm for five years to come, so that all contracts are evaluated during this period.
It is noteworthy that Opaz was established by Royal Decree No. (105/2020) on August 18, 2020, to supervise the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, free zones in Sohar, Salalah, Al Mazuna and any other special economic zone or free zone in the Sultanate of Oman. Opaz also supervises Madayn following Royal Decree No. 53/2022.
