President inaugurates key electricity-generating projects

‘Annual spending on Upper Egypt development touched up LE 1.1 trillion’

The President made the remarks on Monday while inaugurating a number of national and strategic projects in the electricity and renewable energy sector in the governorates of Upper Egypt, foremost of which is the Benban Solar Energy Complex, the world’s largest complex of plants to generate clean electricity in Egypt.

Underscoring the huge efforts that have been made to develop this sector’s infrastructure, President Sisi said that such efforts have enabled Egypt to enter into agreements for electricity connectivity with neighbouring countries. Countries that are not ready in this field, the President said, would miss a lot because grid connectivity allows the exchange of electricity between countries at peak times.

Elaborating, the President said that the volume of state expenditure in the electricity sector without Upper Egypt amounted to 150 billion Egyptian pounds during the past four or five years, adding that the sum would exceed twice as much if spending on the transport sector is put in.

The state, President Sisi said, has spent more than 1.1 trillion Egyptian pounds annually for the development of Upper Egypt and is still working to provide services to citizens in the appropriate form.

Emphasising the state’e genuine interest in pursuing the developmental drive, President Sisi said stressed that he did not accept some proposals to increase salaries by small amounts ranging between 100 and 150 Egyptian pounds and preferred not to leave people without services such as water, electricity, and other public utilities.

Stressing that the state is set to provide more services to people, President Sisi said that the opening of developmental projects would acquaint citizens of the size of the effort exerted and the financial cost paid.

President Sisi also asserted that the government is continuing to develop the electricity and energy sector, noting that the transmission of electric power in a high quality and manner is a strategic goal.

The President called on the media to convey the efforts achieved by the state in this regard and also urged universities and schools to organize trips to acquaint students of the achievements made on the ground, pointing out that each of the projects that are inaugurated is like a new high dam.

He added that the Benban solar energy complex, for example, is a wonderful project operated by the private sector with cadres of the people of Upper Egypt, calling for giving them more opportunities.

The president said, “We were faced with two options: we say the issue is not resolved, or we urgently intervene to solve it,” noting that there are countries that have had a problem with electricity for 15 or 20 years and did not solve it.

“We solved this problem because we saw that the Egyptian national security was affected by the electricity problem whereas a solution to the problem makes us a valued country and indicates that we are developing our country,” the President said.

Solving the electricity problem, the President added, also means giving the private sector and investments a chance to grow given that electricity is a pre-requisite for work and producitivity.

He pointed out that he informed Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker at the time, that this problem should be resolved as soon as possible so that the factories would not close.

To solve the problem at the earliest, the President said, the state decided to adopt an urgent plan at a cost of two billion dollars. In this connection, President Sisi thanked Electricity Minister Dr. Mohamed Shaker for the efforts he made over the past years to enable the electricity sector to achieve a leap.