MUSCAT -- The Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Authority has pledged to develop top-of-the-line utility infrastructure with a view to attracting local and international investment to its industrial hub on the Wusta coast. According to a senior official of the Authority, the utilities -- covering a broad spectrum of services required by industrial investors -- will be benchmarked against those provided at world-class industrial zones.
"Utilities are very important for the success of the SEZ. Going by what we have seen at Sohar Port and its success in facilitating private investment there, we felt the need to establish a utilities company that can provide all the necessary services for customers investing in Duqm," said Engineer Yahya bin Khamis al Zadjali, Head of Planning and Engineering Services at the Duqm SEZ Authority.
"Our goal is to adopt best practices in the design and provision of utility infrastructure and we have established a team that will oversee the provision of comprehensive, modern and efficient utilities systems for Duqm," he added in comments to the Observer. In late April, the SEZ Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the majority government-owned Takamul Investment Company SAOC for the construction, operation and management of utility infrastructure at the Duqm SEZ.
Takamul, which is 90 per cent owned by the government through Oman Oil Company, has a mission to support the development of an industrial base in Oman by investing in value-added ventures in collaboration with specialised partners. "This MoU signed by the SEZ Authority with Takamul will ensure the provision of services, such industrial gases, cooling water intake, sewerage collection and treatment, solid waste management, and so on, to private industrial investors," Al Zadjali said.
With a view to acquainting themselves with utility standards adopted by the world's major industrial hubs, a team of officials from the SEZ Authority recently visited facilities in Singapore, as well as the Belgian Port of Antwerp which is a joint venture partner with the Omani government in the Port of Duqm. "We studied Singapore's experience in utility infrastructure. They have one of the best utility systems to be found in Asia. We also recently returned from Antwerp and studied the way how they manage their utilities."
Significantly, the recent MoU represents Takamul's second major investment in industrial services and represents a shift from its principal objective to promote and invest in value-added projects that feed off local upstream industries involving metals, petrochemicals and minerals. The company has, of late, been making an energetic foray into specialist services as well, as attested by an agreement signed earlier this year with the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE).
United Facilities Management Services LLC, a newly established joint venture company that includes Takamul as a shareholder, inked a deal with PEIE to operate and maintain all of the utilities and common areas within the industrial and technology parks administered by PEIE. Other partners in United Facilities Management are Shumookh Investment & Services SAOC (the investment arm of PEIE) and Shaqab Abela Catering Services LLC -- Qatar.
© Oman Daily Observer 2012
