Ahmed Akaak is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Port of Salalah. He joined the company 16 years ago and has been instrumental in driving the Port’s growth to become the most significant business in his native Dhofar and the biggest employer, contributing 58million USD to the local economy in wages alone. An important part of his role is building and maintaining relations with the Omani Government, which has a shareholding in the Port and helps fund its onward development through investment in infrastructure. As a result he spends, on average, 20% of his time in Muscat. Here he reflects on that relationship and the Port’s place in its local community. The Port of Salalah exemplifies the strategic vision of the Government of Oman to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons and achieve a diversified economic base to secure the nation’s long-term development. The Government is a very important stakeholder in the company and it is critical to our success that we continuously remain engaged with Government authorities, particularly the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Royal Omani Police (ROP), Supreme Council of Planning, the Oman Chamber of Commerce and other institutions. Government relationship building is critical so we can continuously engage the people concerned to explain our business perspective and speed up decisionmaking. Meeting and explaining our viewpoint helps in convincing people and facilitating decisions, which are in the interest of our business and the overall economic development of the region and our nation. Last year, Salalah Port formally brought into operation a new deep water General Cargo and Liquid bulk terminal adding 20 million tons of dry cargo and six million tons of liquid bulk cargo annual handling capacity. It was built by the Omani Government at a cost of 55 million OMR and is a tangible example of what Government patronage can achieve. We have many other projects in the pipeline, such as a northern breakwater, GCT rehabilitation projects, services corridor and a security gate, which all are under the consideration of Government. The situation is very challenging as the fall of oil prices has made the budgetary position very tight and we have to make a very sound case for investments for our plans to pass the test and to be approved by Government. As you will read elsewhere, the Port of Salalah continues to achieve considerable volume growth at the General Cargo 14
Issue 2 . 2016