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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters More power for the 21st century
By Shaimaa LabibThe next decade will see Egypt establishing 15 conventional and non-conventional power generation plants.
This was disclosed last week by Egypt's minister of electricity and power, Maher Abaza, as he joined British minister of trade, Brian Wilson, in opening the annual Middle East Power '99 (MEP99) exhibition for electricity and electrotechnical industries.
Representatives of 68 international power industry companies from 18 countries participated in the exhibition, making it the largest to be held in the Middle East and North Africa.
"Electrical energy is the backbone of any nation's economy," Abaza said at the exhibition's opening session. "Therefore, the Egyptian government is paying a lot of attention to the electricity and power sector by allocating suitable investments for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, in order to meet demand."
Abaza said that in 1996, the Ministry of Electricity and Power started to implement plans to encourage the private sector to generate electricity and restructure the electric power sector, as part of the country's on-going economic reform and structural adjustment programme.
"The Ministry of Electricity and Power has opted to go gradually through a competitive bidding based on the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) scheme," Abaza said.
He said there was significant development in the restructuring of the power sector last year and over the next decade 15 power plants will be operated on a BOOT basis, including steam plants, wind farms, pump storage and gas turbines.
Abaza also said Egypt has played a pivotal role in enhancing cooperation between Middle Eastern, North African and Mediterranean countries in the field of electricity. A number of projects are in the pipeline, including an electric grid project between Egypt and Jordan, which will be inaugurated soon, a project to establish an electrical grid between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, which will be finalised by the end of the year, completing the electricity link between Egypt and Europe, through Turkey, and a grid project between Egypt and Libya, which is expected to be finalised later this year.
When the North African grid is in place, a plan to interconnect the East and Southern Mediterranean region from Turkey to Morocco will be carried out.
Wilson, who is heading a delegation of British businessmen to Egypt, said he was optimistic about business opportunities in the power sector in Egypt and the Middle East.
"It is clear that there are major opportunities for trade and investment in the power sector in Egypt and the region as a whole," he said. "British companies have acquired an enormous amount of experience in the power industries, making it possible to create successful business ventures with their Egyptian counterparts."
According to Judy O'Dowd, leader of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry Group and head of a group of eight British companies attending MEP99, "Major British companies have rallied to Middle East Power (MEP99) following official backing from Britain's Department of Trade and Industry."
Bernd Hackler, head of the Bavarian delegation, said that "MEP has the official backing of the Bavarian government. Trade between Egypt and Germany is in constant growth, reaching LE8 billion in the past year. The growth rate of the power sector in Egypt is around six per cent a year, making the country one of the largest markets in this field, with an investment of around $2.5 billion up until 2017."
"Great agricultural and industrial projects planned by the Egyptian government such as Toshka, Suez Gulf and Port Said need huge investments and technical know-how and we hope to be able to participate in them," said Hackler.
Graham Lock, exhibition director at the Institute for International Research (IIR), which organised the exhibition, said the show had succeeded in bringing together the biggest names in the international power industry. "Almost 80 per cent of the exhibitors are new to Egypt and North Africa and are using the show to launch products, introduce ground-breaking technology or seek potential joint venture partners for manufacturing and trading projects."
Companies from Eastern Europe, including those from Russia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Poland, made a strong showing at the exhibition.
