SALALAH Ali bin Masoud al Sunaidi, and Industry Undersecretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Oman and chairman of the technical committee for the free trade zone discussed in a meeting with local businessmen and entrepreneurs here Tuesday investment opportunities in the proposed free zone. The meeting was held at the premises of the Omani Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) Salalah branch and attended by Sheikh Abdullah bin Salim al Rowas, OCCI's board member and head of OCCI's Salalah branch and Jack Hilton, director of free trade zone project.

Al Sunaidi told businessmen the proposed free trade zone was one of the major projects that will reintroduce the sultanate to the world of international trade and shipping. He said Portia, a ports and free zones specialist firm has been appointed to carry out a feasibility study on the project. He said international companies have already started to show interest to invest in the zone and requests were received from those companies to establish their integrated industries for raw material manufacturing.

He said the project would have positive effects on the economy by providing job opportunities and encouraging the establishment of support services and better exploitation of available resources. Al Rowas in an address at the outset of the meeting hailed Sultan Qaboos bin Said's directive to establish the free trade zone in Salalah. He said the project was particularly important as it will play a basic complementary role for the seaport.

He said meetings with businessmen have shown they were ready to participate and invest in the stock shares of the project managing company. Jack Hilton told the meeting the free trade zone will have an initial area of 500 hectare and the first phase of the project will be completed in one to two years. He said the concerned authorities would receive the draft legislation regulating the zone activities by December this year and prior to the establishment of the zone managing body.