Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran) has announced that it will facilitate the development of Oman’s first world class family water park in Muscat, a key project under the National CEO Programme (NCP).

The ground-breaking project, which is set to be a premiere visitor destination, has been developed by six graduates of the NCP - an initiative by the Public Private Partnership taskforce (Sharaka), under the patronage of the Diwan of Royal Court.

The all-Omani team consist of six C-suite executives including Aisha Al Kharusi, Eng Adnan Al Alawi, Dr Ali Mustafa Al Lawati, Badar Al Hashmi, Ali Al Lawati and Eng Ali Al Rasbi. The team comes from a range of Oman’s leading corporate including the financial sector, oil and gas, aviation, telecom and tourism.

The team worked on the concept for a year - spending over 5,000 hours on the development of a detailed business plan that included extensive financial modelling and stakeholder research. The findings supported the team’s outcome that the project can generate significant private investment and, on completion, will generate extremely profitable returns for shareholders.

Dr Ali Qassim Jawad Al Lawati, advisor for studies and research to the Diwan of Royal Court, chairman of the Advisory Committee to the National CEO Programme said: “I would like to congratulate the graduates from The National CEO Programme Cohort One team for their exceptional deliverable and commitment to the programme. Clearly, the outcome demonstrates their outstanding contribution to the tourism industry strategy by delivering a world class proposal."

The NCP, which operates in partnership with the world leading IMD Business School in Switzerland, is the first of its kind to be run in the sultanate and has mandate to address Oman’s private sector’s needs for talented business leaders and executives.

Through the CEO programme, which is founded on global best practice and the latest leadership thinking and learning methodologies, attendees are empowered to meet the challenges of Oman’s business landscape and embrace the significant opportunities that the Sultanate’s economy offers.

James Wilson, CEO of Omran, said: “Omran’s mission is to seek and support projects of national significance that can help position Oman as a leading global visitor destination. We actively look to support develop and grow national capacities to develop and manage these projects, which is why we are fully committed to collaborating with the NCP. In addition, it is one of our key performance objectives to train and develop the future executive leaders in Omran.

“Based on extensive market research carried out by the NCP team it is clear that there is significant interest from the younger generation in Oman and as is the case at other successful Waterparks in our neighbouring countries it is a significant driver of family based hotel occupancy.

People across Oman have been waiting for a family entertainment development such as this and we are delighted that Omran has worked closely with the NCP team; we are also proud that Omran’s former chief operating officer was a key member of the team that developed the project.

“The project will be developed and financed in partnership with the private sector. There has been a significant interest by local investors to take part in the project and we are now in discussions with a number of local investors for the Water Park and we look forward to providing more detailed information over the coming weeks. We are confident that this world-class development will further enhance Oman’s position as a leading global visitor destination,” he concluded. - TradeArabia News Service