Muscat: The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) held a workshop on the Supply and Cold Chains Initiative, with the participation of specialists from the National Programme for Economic Diversification (Tanwea), the National Employment Programme (Tashgeel) and the Industrial Innovation Academy (IIA).
This seminar aimed to promote integration between large investments and supplier projects in the supply and cold chains and create opportunities for new industries that contribute to economic diversification. The seminar reviewed the infrastructure and logistical factors available in the economic zones, free zones and industrial zones.
The seminar discussed the authority's initiatives to develop import and export services and analyse supply chains. These initiatives aim to create a prominent and enabling investment environment and to simplify the practical measures that have been taken to assess the current situation, define roles and enhance integration with other entities.
A team from the Ministry of Economy and the Academy of Industrial Innovation provided an overview of studying the economic diversification in cold chains in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm as a first stage and circulate it to the rest of the zones later, including the targeted objectives.
The seminar discussed opportunities to enhance this study including additional capabilities that enhance the diversification of manufacturing industries in the fish sector and boost the local added value achieved from those projects and the highly competitive investment environment provided by the Authority in the areas under its supervision.
It is worth noting that this initiative comes in the first phase to take advantage of the attractive and facilitating capabilities of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, and to achieve high value for those wishing to invest in this aspect, including highly efficient and designed infrastructure, including Duqm Airport and its facilities such as cold stores, aviation fuel filling stations, and sea fishing port, which contains facilities for this type of industry integrated with the Port of Duqm, in addition to a modern road network and other investment incentives and benefits offered by the zone, such as exemption from income tax, zero value-added tax, customs exemption, no restrictions on capital and services, and a unified electronic system, which is a facilitator for investment projects.