Jan Meijer has played a very important part in developing Sohar Port as one of Oman’s major success stories over the past decade. He talked to Maurice Gent about how he worked jointly with the Omani and Dutch governments to build a port of global signifi

1. When you were first appointed CEO what was your vision?

I was appointed on the 1st of October 2003 at the same time as Jamal Aziz as deputy CEO. Before that time I had been intensively involved with the Port of Sohar — as adviser to the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC). I had been involved in discussing the future organisational structure and bringing the Government of the Sultanate and the Port of Rotterdam together to negotiate a longterm concession agreement. Jamal Aziz was at that time the Director-general of MOTC and my colleague in negotiations and bringing the parties together. From July 22, 2002, the date Sohar Industrial Port Company was founded, we both joined the Board.

Vision: I was convinced that we could achieve His Majesty’s vision to develop an industrial hub, using the country’s energy resources to create employment for young Omani people and add considerable value to the economy. We could achieve that through making Sohar a real diversified Industrial port. By a diversified industrial port I meant — a balanced container/dry bulk and wet bulk port with dedicated but specifically also public independent terminals which can be used by all parties. At that time we then envisaged already a kind of Free Zone which at that time was not yet existing in Oman and therefore called a “special economic zone.”

2. Apart from the vision what were the important first steps you took?

One of the very important steps we took was the recruiting of a young dynamic team of Omani men and women to help us to build the new organisation. Some of them have climbed the ranks through the last eight years and now fulfil important positions in the port organisation.

3. In the early years you worked closely with the Netherlands Ambassador of the time, the late Annelies Boogaerdt. How did this affect the development of an organisation, 50 per cent owned by the Oman Government and 50 per cent by the Dutch Port of Rotterdam?

Annelies Boogaerdt, the Dutch Ambassador from 2003, has played an important role in those early years. Besides helping to smooth the rela- tionship between SIPC and the shareholders of the Port of Rotterdam being the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands, she helped tremendously with doing PR for the port through creating specific events for the Corps Diplomatique in Oman to visit the Port of Sohar and through that giving the port international exposure.

4. When did you realise that Sohar Port was set to become a port of international stature, destined to become internationally recognised as being in the very top class?

Already in an early stage we realised, also through the reactions of the early (potential) investors that the port, through its geographical positioning and because it had the full support of the Omani Government could grow to an international hub. We also realized that in order to be able to grow to an international hub, it required a different business environment .

Examples of that are — a totally different customs regime. A new view of the government of clustering logistic and (marine) transport related activity. Only in the past year we have seen these developments getting off the ground — the customs have embarked on a completely new customs (IT) framework for the future and Port Sultan Qaboos will concentrate on touristic activities while the Batinah containers will be concentrated in the Port of Sohar.

5. What would you say have been the main reasons for the port's swift progress?

Let us not underestimate the fact that during the first decade of this century we have seen consistent growth and more specifically in this region. The investors more and more recognised the advantages of a very deep water port outside the Arabian Gulf which had ideal road connections into the hinterland. After the first few investors we got the reputation that we could deliver what we promised. No investor has ever delayed its operations because of SIPC not having the infrastructure available in time. Besides that, in the Board of SIPC it became clear that the Government of the Sultanate and the Port of Rotterdam really had parallel interests and I dare to say that there was a meeting of minds between the three Chairmen we have had — HE Shaikh Mohammed Al Harthy, HE Maqbool Ali Sultan and recently HE Shaikh Saad al Saadi with the Deputy Chairman and President of the Port of Rotterdam — Hans Smits. Similarly the very close working relationship between Jamal Aziz and myself.

6. We are hearing increasingly these days about Free Zone Sohar. When did this become a key part in the whole development.

As I mentioned earlier, already in an early stage we envisaged a Special Economic Zone but only in 2007 when both the Government of Oman and the Port of Rotter-