Law on public-private partnership soon
A law that facilitates public-private partnerships (PPP) in a variety of projects aimed at the development process will be introduced soon, says Talal bin Sulaiman al Rahbi, Deputy Secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Planning (SCP). “The law, aimed at accelerating the growth through various public-private joint projects, will complement the present 9th Five-year Plan as well as the 10th Plan,” he said.
“We expect the public-private partnership and the Investment Law will enhance the business environment in the country and it will be introduced soon.
“This is something the government has been pushing forward throughout the first three years of the 9th FiveYear Plan, and will put a lot of efforts on the private companies to establish their businesses and implement various national projects by the private entities as well as projects related to the service sector,” Al Rahbi added.
Speaking to Observer at the recent Bizoman Forum, ‘Opportunity in Challenge’, Al Rahbi said the Sultanate will also have a master plan for each and every governorate by next year for which the ground work is currently under way.
“The Supreme Council for Planning has completed the ground work which involves visiting governorates and meeting with citizens and residents on its future prospects and the Master Plan will be presented next year after the ‘2040 National Conference’ to be held by the end of this year.
“The capital city was the last stop which we concluded recently and one of the key projects was the KPI’S for 2010.”
The SCP has been working on a number of national projects with the National Spatial Strategy being one among the many and having the PPP law will provide a good framework to ease the implementation of a lot of partnership projects with the private sector to execute a number of publicprivate initiatives.
“This will enhance the implementation of the 9th Five-year Plan as one of the objectives is to enhance the business environment and to give more projects to the private sector to work hand in hand with the government,” Al Rahbi said.