Omani tourism minister meets members of real estate association board

Ahmed bin Nasser al-Mahirzi, Minister of Tourism today met with members of the Omani Real Estate Association Board of Directors. During the meeting, the Minister of Tourism commended the role played by the Association in maintaining coordination with the respective departments with relation to means of developing the real estate and tourism sectors in the Sultanate. He called for publishing an index for the real estate market in the Sultanate to help decision makers, investors, developers and financiers follow up the development in the sector. On his part, Eng. Mohammed bin Salim al-Busaidi, Chairman of the Omani Real Estate Association said that the meeting will contribute to enhancing partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and the non-governmental sectors. He pointed out that the meeting covered a number of topics of interest for the tourism and real estate sectors in the Sultanate, such as providing advice, mechanism for evaluating the tourism and real estate sectors, revising the laws and legislations related to real estate, development and investment. The meeting also discussed facilitating the terms and conditions for setting up hotel apartments, as approved by the Licenses Committee at the Ministry of Tourism. It also discussed the possibility of encouraging developers and investment companies that own tourism projects in the Sultanate to join the Association and providing care and financial subsidy for the Association by tourism investment companies. The meeting discussed the possibility of allowing the local brokerage companies to market certain percentage of the units offered for sale at the Integrated Tourism Complexes (ITC), in addition to the Association's taking part at the different exhibitions and events organized by the Ministry or at which the Ministry takes part, especially those related to real estate.