Officials and economists expressed their confidence in the success of the Sultanate in its efforts to shift towards green economy and achieve the goals of the 17 Sustainable Development Plan 2030, adopted on September 25th, 2015 at the United Nations (UN) Summit held in New York.
Reem Mohammad al-Najdawi, Head of Food and Environmental Policies at the Sustainable Development Division in the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, said in an interview with Oman News Agency (ONA): “The Sultanate has proven over the years that it is able to manage large and important files in terms of social and economic development”.
She added that the Sultanate is one of the countries committed to the international resolutions, including the implementation of the development goals and was one of the first countries that submitted reports on the completion of those goals.
She believed that the Sultanate’s achievement to the sustainable development goals would be a commended achievement, and if plans are put for achieving the objectives approved by the New York Summit, it means we put the targets of a shift towards a green economy.
She pointed out that there are existing institutional structures that can be exploited to shift towards green economy, including research centers, Sultan Qaboos University, Innovation and Development Centre, Business Incubators, the Research Council and others.
She said: “We need to have a strategy at the international level and not at the sectoral level, and I think that intersects significantly with the international trend to achieve goals of the 17 sustainable development, which were approved by countries taking part in the World Summit held in New York, including t he Sultanate”.
Al-Najdawi explained that the Sultanate has great economic potentials to accomplish and achieve a significant progress in the upcoming years in the policies driven by factors of stability, supportive government system, growing and enthusiastic private sector to contribute to the development and the desire of all sectors to achieve the best,” expressing hope that the Sultanate is “the success story that we pass to other countries”.
She noted that a survey will be conducted for the selected sectors and their employees, as well as the policies carried out by the countries from various concerned ministries, other parties, the private sector and academics, to see what has been accomplished and setting goals for measuring and to follow them up, in addition to establishing a government follow up and supervision committee that has the authority to monitor and evaluate the performance and therefore the presence of measurable quantitative and qualitative indicators, and analyzing them for the improvement and continuity of work.
Mohammed bin Salim al-Sa’adi from the Sultanate’s Office to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, told Oman News Agency (ONA) that the national review of green export project is a fruit of a technical cooperation between the Sultanate and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He added that the project aims to develop a clear action plan to bring the environmental dimension on the target sector by enhancing its competitiveness in global markets and improving the production methods, the sustainability of policies and legislations for the goals of the Sultanate’s sustainable development.
He explained that the first workshop, which was concluded last Wednesday, aimed at selecting the most promising sectors by representatives of the government and private sectors, civil society and academics to listen to their opinions and suggestions about the major promising sectors.
Dr. Victoria Chaumont, economic expert in the fisheries and aquaculture sector at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that the Sultanate has very promising sectors and competitive potentials to shift towards the green economy and competition in world market. She added that the Sultanate enjoys many natural resources that can be exploited and which will undoubtedly provide competitive products in the global markets, as well as creating job opportunities.