Aufi discusses ways to boost food SMEs

Muscat: Dr Hamad bin Said bin Sulaiman al Aufi, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, met a number of officials in government and private institutions in his office on Tuesday to boost support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the food production sector. The meeting comes within the framework of cooperation between the Public Authority for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (Riyada) with related parties. The meeting discussed several important aspects of establishing an institutional framework to support small and medium enterprises in the agriculture and fish sector. It also discussed the establishment of a specialised unit for local value addition in Riyada. PDO specialists gave a presentation on the company’s experience in enhancing local value added in the oil and gas sector through its strategy aimed at maximizing local investments, increasing local purchases of goods and services, developing small and medium enterprises, participating in recruitment and training, development of local talent, increasing contribution to the development of local communities through specific annual programs with a specific timeframe for implementation and measurement of performance indicators. The specialists discussed the possibility of benefiting from them and transferring the knowledge to be applied to the food production sector. They include the best practices to activate the initiative and the establishment of small and medium enterprises in the agricultural and fish sector. Saleh bin Mohammed al Shanfari, CEO of Oman Foods Investment Holding Company, introduced some initiatives that are being implemented by the company and suggested the implementation of a specialised program in boosting the local added value. He added that the specialists in Al Raffd Fund, Oman Development Bank are ready to facilitate financing the establishment of SMEs. — ONA