H E Dr Fuad bin Jaafar bin Mohammed al Sajwani, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries on Saturday announced that a ministerial committee and a governmental company will be set up to develop aquaculture in Oman.
He was speaking at the opening of the two-day International Conference on Developing Aquaculture which began at Al Bustan Palace Hotel on Saturday.
"The purpose for founding the ministerial committee is to speed up the decision-making process. The committee will have representations from all bodies concerned with aquaculture, including the ministries of agriculture and fisheries, housing and environment, the ROP and research institutions like Sultan Qaboos University (SQU)."
H E Sajwani said that this committee, with its decision makers, will make filing applications on aquaculture projects and their approval easier by cutting out the effort of approaching various ministries.
"The governmental company is in its preparatory stage and will be announced soon. It will provide technical support and create model farms without being involved in competition with private sector companies."
He said that his ministry's efforts to develop aquaculture included specifying areas reaching upto 3,000 hectares for a project, studying effects on fish prices in the sultanate, and preparing a study on aquaculture produce in cooperation with SQU and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), charting a national strategy, preparing an administrative guide on fishing, bringing out an atlas of locations deemed fit for aquaculture, setting up a regulatory board and laying down quality control rules with recommendations from FAO specialists.
Talking about investments in the field, he said, "The sultanate presents a good environment for investment by not imposing taxes on personal income, five-year tax holiday for companies, easy loans from Oman Development Bank, no customs duty on manufacturing companies importing machinery, devices and parts, and allowing the foreign company investing in the field to hold 70 per cent of the stake."
© Muscat Daily 2011
