Tuesday 10 / November / 2026
Muscat: The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) held a workshop with the World Bank Group Office in the Sultanate of Oman, represented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with the attendance of representatives of the zones supervised by the Authority.
During the workshop, opportunities for cooperation were discussed, including expanding opportunities for private sector participation.
The workshop reviewed the international framework for eco-industrial zones and the possibility of benefiting from it in raising the efficiency of the zones’ performance, identifying opportunities to improve the efficiency of public utilities utilisation, and ways to link industrial clusters with local supply chains, thereby enabling small and medium enterprises to supply products and services to existing and new projects.
In the field of infrastructure, the workshop discussed the requirements for preparing and structuring projects in accordance with public-private partnership (PPP) models, the possible technical and advisory support, as well as financing instruments, eligibility criteria, and environmental and social performance requirements.
Through this cooperation, OPAZ seeks to identify opportunities for cooperation with the IFC and to provide the necessary information to the special economic zones, free zones, and industrial cities, and then to the companies operating therein, in order to develop mechanisms for managing and operating projects in a manner that achieves operational efficiency and reduces the cost of doing business in them.
