H E Sayyid Ibrahim bin Said al Busaidi, Minister of State and Governor of Musandam, held a meeting with the board of directors of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) of the governorate to ascertain about the activities of the branch and its plans for the current year.

During the meeting, the minister emphasised on the partnership between public and private sectors and the support to the private sector.

Major challenges faced by the private sector during 2019 in Musandam governorate came up for discussion during the meeting. In addition to this, the activities and services given by the OCCI’s branch during the year 2019 were also highlighted. The meeting also discussed major initiatives including Musandam International Company for Investment and Marketing. Deliberations were also held on the additional quality services provided by the OCCI’s branch in Musandam to its employees including a variety of innovative and interactive training programmes to raise the level of job seekers, entrepreneurs and employees and give them more information. The Musandam branch of the OCCI has also provided a package of free finance, accounting, tax, and administrative services.

These services were made available at a low cost through Amwal Company and a package of free or low cost legal services and consultations were given through Khalifa al Hanai’s office. The Musandam tourist chamber in Port of Khasab was successful in organising the sale of tourist packages for cruise ship passengers.

The Musandam branch of the OCCI signed an agreement on July 21, 2019 to enter into the unified registration system of the supplier JSRS through which all suppliers are registered and which is used for electronic tender and contract management in the oil and gas sector in the sultanate.

This is under its framework for encouraging, enabling and building the local private sector capabilities and to provide a database for the companies, which get government contracts in the governorate.

The branch has been working since October with the government work team to establish private companies to follow up the establishment of Musandam International Investment Company. The shares of the company will be offered for trading for the people of the governorate coinciding with the commissioning of the Khasab-Lima-Dibba road project. The company will lead the growth and investment in the governorate. This will be beneficial regionally and internationally.

To make the governorate a major destination for holding conferences, exhibitions and events, Khasab Exhibition and Convention Centre is being developed. The centre would have an exhibition hall of around 1,000m and office and commercial spaces of another 1,000m. It is expected that the centre would be ready by 2021.

Similarly, the work on the idea of setting up a Musandam Fund for Social Responsibility is underway. There is also a demand to allocate a permanent place for organising events and festivals in Khasab. Musandam World Economic Conference 2020 is to be held in November.