Year: 2016
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Egypt to save $1tn through establishing solar thermal power plants by 2050: El-Nokrashy
Solar energy expert Hany El-Nokrashy, a member of the advisory council formed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, spoke to Daily News Egypt about his five-year plan to attract foreign investment and the establishment of solar power plants in the coming period.
What was the plan you presented to the Ministry of Electricity?
It was a five-year plan which includes the establishment of five solar power plants with a capacity of 250 MW, and links them to a subsidiary gas station for emergency purposes, in all areas that need electricity.
Upper Egypt’s provinces and villages need electricity, and my plan aims to establish a power station next to each village. It will contribute to supplying clean, sustainable electricity, as well as encouraging many industries, such as drying fruits, food freezing, and other industries that require electricity.
What is the difference between Egypt and European countries in terms of solar energy?
The sunlight in Egypt is better than Europe, as we have wide deserts, giving us unfiltered access to rays. The sunlight in Europe is interrupted by clouds and fog, giving light but no heat.
The temperature of focused sun rays in Egypt ranges between 400-500°C, which is the same temperature used by traditional thermal power plants that use fuel to generate electricity.
The solar power plants feature a concentrated acrylic lens and reflective walls to focus the rays and generate electricity, and that energy can be stored through thermal fluids, and used again at night.
Does Al-Sisi show an interest in new and renewable energy projects?
Al-Sisi is excited about the establishment of new and renewable energy projects, and always emphasises that sustainable development can be achieved through new and renewable energy.
Egypt has all the required human, technical, and financial resources to implement solar energy projects, but it lacks the will, as we delayed launching these projects. However, we still have a great opportunity next year.
How can Egypt achieve a breakthrough in solar energy projects?
The government should develop a comprehensive plan to build solar power projects, starting by establishing seven stations, with annual growing capacity in order to save investments and gas used in traditional stations.
If we establish a solar power plant with thermal storage and a capacity of 20-50MW which can generate electricity for 24 hours, we would not need the old traditional station run by fuel anymore.
What is the economic return of the establishment of solar power stations?
If Egypt starts building a number of solar thermal power stations gradually, it will save $1tn by 2050.
By 2050, Egypt will face many challenges as its population will reach 120 million people and their water needs will amount to 120bn cubic metres, while the current water reserves are only 70bn cubic metres.
Water is directly connected to energy, whether in terms of energy required to extract it from wells, or to pump it into the cities’ supply grids, or for desalination of sea water.
The rapid development of Egyptian society due to the growing population and the growing economic growth requires an increase in the power supply and water resources.
Are there any studies about energy production in Egypt?
The national aeronautics and space research centre in Germany relied on a study about renewable energy in the Middle East, which was prepared by the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), a similar authority in Algeria, the Moroccan Institute for Solar Energy, and the National Energy Research Center in Jordan.
The study focuses on the sun and wind in the North Africa and the Middle East desert.
Solar radiation availability in North Africa and the Middle East exceeds the whole world’s needs. The European Union will try to obtain the lowest price and best conditions for importing clean electricity from its southern neighbours.
In the future, market competition will revolve around the price, quality, the product’s expiry date, speed of supply, flexibility in meeting customer demands, supply of after-services, treatment fidelity, and the manner of communication.
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Nubians reportedly agree to disperse protest with preconditions
Nubian protestors have reportedly agreed to disperse from their sit-in on Abu Simbel road in South Aswan, on the condition that the government uphold Article 236 of the Constitution which stipulates: “the government shall work to implement projects to return the residents of Nubia to their original territories and develop such territories within 10 years, as regulated by law.”
Member of parliament Mostafa Bakry, who was among a parliamentary committee assigned by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to meet with Nubian leaders, said in an interview on Tuesday that several meetings will be held next week to discuss the issue. He added that protesters will not be followed by security forces after the dispersal.
The Nubians started their protests in opposition to the 1.5m acres reclamation project being proposed by the government. Under this project, the government intends to sell several acres of land from the Nubian villages of Khor Qindi and Toshka. Several Nubian groups, including the Nubian Coalition for the Purpose of Land Reclamation have organised protests over the past four days in response to the project.
In an attempt to appease the protesters, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said Nubians would be given the priority to certain lands allocated in the project. The protesters however insist that their ancestral lands are located in Khor Qindi and Toshak, and that they have been displaced several times.
The protesters also demanded that President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi issue a presidential decree cancelling the project and grant them the right to return to their lands.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms issued a press statement on Tuesday urging authorities to adhere to the provisions of the constitution and return the Nubians to their lands.
The Nubians had sent caravans to protest in the disputed villages, but they were hindered by security forces. They chose instead to protest at Abu Simbel Road in South Aswan and the protests went on for four days.
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Al-Sisi attends Arab-African Summit in Guinea amid Moroccan withdrawal
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has arrived to Equatorial Guinea’s capital of Malabo early on Wednesday to participate in the fourth Arab-African two-day summit, starting Wednesday.
In his opening speech, Al-Sisi said that Egypt puts the peace and security of the Arab world and African continent on the top of its foreign policy priorities. He added that Egypt will further work on enhancing economic cooperation between the Arab world and Africa.
Tension has swept over the preparations of the Arab-African Summit, as the delegation of Morocco withdrew on Tuesday due to the participation of an independent delegation from Western Sahara. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates followed the footsteps of Morocco and withdrew from participating in solidarity with Morocco. Other countries reportedly followed and withdrew from the summit, including Qatar, Jordan, and Bahrain.
The dispute between Morocco and the Western Sahara, located south of Morocco, started after the country’s independence from French occupation in 1956. In 1975, Morocco demanded that Spanish forces withdraw from the Western Sahara. The Spanish occupation ended in 1976.
Morocco and Mauritania disputed over which country will take over the sovereignty of the Western Sahara, agreeing that Morocco will take over northern Western Sahara and Mauritania will take over the southern part.
However, turmoil swept over Mauritania after which it dropped its authority over southern Western Sahara. By then, the Polisario front was established—a movement calling for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. Morocco rejected the independence and suggested an independent ruling for Western Sahara, but under the sovereignty of Morocco. The armed Polisario movement refused Morocco’s suggestion. Algeria defends the Polisario movement, which led to ongoing tension with Morocco.
All parties have agreed on a public referendum whereby they will decide on the political fate of Western Sahara; however, the referendum date has not been fixed yet.
The political and economic challenges that are currently facing the region are at the top of the agenda of the summit. The third summit was held in Kuwait in 2013.
Al-Sisi concluded his three-day visit to Portugal late Tuesday after he met with his Portuguese counterpart, prime minister, and several officials and investors, aiming to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.
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Over 300 signatures in solidarity statement with syndicates, workers
At least 336 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), political parties, and public figures expressed solidarity with the movements of syndicates and struggle of workers in defence of people’s rights, in a statement issued Tuesday published by the Revolutionary Socialists group.
The statement addressed the ongoing harassment of Press Syndicate leaders Yehia Qalash, Gamal Abdul Reheem, and Khaled El-Balshy, in addition to a distortion campaign led against the secretary general of the Doctors Syndicate and the detention of Public Transportation Authority (PTA) workers.
“Tyrants and corrupted people are delusional to think that the imprisonment of the Press Syndicate members will scare the rest of Egyptians and force them to abstain from speaking up for their rights, or that journalists’ quest for press freedom will stop,” the statement read.
This comes as the syndicate called on journalists to assemble Wednesday to discuss the repercussions of a Saturday court verdict sentencing its leaders to two years in jail, amid an unprecedented crackdown on the syndicate.
In the meantime, Doctors Syndicate leader Mona Mina is also under fire, after statements she made on TV were distorted—although the video is available online—in a manner that might be aiming to bring up a legal case against her on grounds of spreading incorrect information regarding the state’s healthcare system.
Mina was the face of a mass doctors’ movement in February against police brutality. She has also defended doctors’ rights to infection allowances and the right of people to free health services.
The Doctors Syndicate defended Mina and said that her statement was taken out of context. While discussing shortage in medical supplies, Mina actually said she received a complaint from a doctor in a hospital that he was verbally ordered by the hospital to use the same syringes more than once on several patients.
After the distortion of her statement, Mina was accused of falsely claiming that the Health Ministry gave such orders to hospitals, turning into someone who threatens national security, according to the ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed’s statements to local media.
Last but not least, the solidarity statement condemned the detention of six PTA employees in late September on charges of inciting colleagues to strike.
“[That is] because they opposed plans to privatise the authority in defence of people’s right to decent transportation at reasonable prices, and their demands for their own and colleagues’ financial rights amid the economic crisis,” the statement said.
“We who signed this statement believe that millions of Egyptians are prevented from their rights, and offer our gratitude to those who struggle and the syndicates that support them, hoping that a more comprehensive syndical movement would take place in the face of oppression,” the statement concluded.
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Egyptian airports register 29% decrease in passengers during first 10 months of 2016
The number of passengers received at Egyptian airports during the first 10 months of 2016 declined by 29% compared to the same period in 2015, according to statistics issued by the Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation.
In all, 20.1m passengers had gone through Egyptian airports in this period, compared to 28.4m in 2015. The number of flights during this period also fell by 15%, totalling 237,000 in 2016 compared to 277,000 in 2015.
Cairo International airport witnessed a small decrease in the number of flights it had received, from 130,000 in 2015 to 123,000 in 2016. The total number of passengers that the airport handled fell by two points, from 12.1m in 2015 to 11.8m in 2016.
The Sharm El-Sheikh International airport registered the biggest drop in flights and tourism, experiencing a year-on-year drop in the number of passengers of 74%, registering 1.3m passengers in 2016 compared to 5.3m in 2015. In the same period, the number of flights dropped from 38,000 in 2015 to 16,000 in 2016.
The number of passengers received at the Hurghada International airport fell by 62%, from 6m passengers in 2015 to 2.3m in 2016. The number of flights in this period also dropped, from 39,000 to 20,000.
In October a total of 1.8m passengers had gone through Egyptian airports, compared to 2.8m in the same month of the previous year. The number of flights fell by 21.9% during this period, totalling 22,000 compared to 28,000 in October 2015.
Flight traffic at Cairo International airport declined by 5% in October, registering 11,900 flights compared to 12,600 flights in October 2015. Passenger traffic fell to one million compared to 1.1 million the previous year.
Passenger traffic at Sharm El-Sheikh International airport during October amounted to 153,000 passengers compared to 583,000 passengers in October 2015, a 73.7% decline. The number of flights also fell by 56.3%, from 3,900 in 2015 to 1,700.
Passenger traffic in Hurghada International airport declined by 57% in October to 288,000 passengers compared to 670,000 passengers in October 2015. Flights fell by 41%, from 4,300 in the previous year to 2,500.
In October 2015, a Russian aeroplane en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was downed over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 passengers and crew aboard. The cause of the crash was determined to be “high energy dynamic influence”, from within the aircraft. In other words, an internal explosion ruptured the fuselage of the aeroplane.
Several countries have issued travel warnings to Egypt, while Russia suspended all flights into the country. Britain had also suspended flight to Sharm El-Sheikh.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, Russian and British tourism to Egypt accounts for 45% of the annual sheer inflow. After the incident Egypt witnessed a sharp decline in tourism, with the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics registering a 99.6% decline in the number of Russian tourists visiting Egypt after the incident. The year-on-year decline in November was 41%
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Health Committee to summon HoldiPharma officials to review development plans next week
The House of Representatives’ Health Committee has summoned the leaders of HoldiPharma company for pharmaceuticals for next week to hear the problems its subsidiaries are encountering, and to discern the reason behind the decline of the company’s share in the Egyptian pharmaceutical market to less than 10%.
Member of parliament Mohamed Al-Amary, head of the Health Committee, told Daily News Egypt that the goal of the meeting is to identify HoldiPharma’s subsidiaries’ development plans during the coming period, in light of the heightened competition with the private sector.
He added that leaders from the Ministry of Health will also attend the meeting, to ensure coordination between companies and the ministry, amid the current pharmaceutical crisis.
HoldiPharma company possesses 12 subsidiaries, and contributes in the capital of 12 companies.
Minister of the Public Business Sector Ashraf El-Sharkawy said that HoldiPharma and its subsidiaries registered profits worth EGP 167m during the fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016, a decline of 11%.
El-Sharkawy held a meeting on Tuesday with leaders of HoldiPharma to discuss the impact of the recent liberalisation of the exchange rate on production costs for raw materials and energy supplies.
According HoldiPharma’s website, revenues in FY 2012/2013 registered a growth of 10.8% compared to FY 2011/2012.
The committee will hold a hearing session with the leaders of the Medical Holding Company to set a development plan for the subsidiaries in the coming period.
Yemen El-Hamaky, board member of the Medical Holding Company affiliated to the Public Business Sector Ministry, said that the medicine market is currently suffering from a severe crisis due to the high cost of production after the liberalisation of Egyptian pound exchange rate.
She added that providing medicine is a national security issue and the current situation is a result of the lack of vision and planning for medicine production in Egypt.
El-Hamaky said that the crisis has been exacerbated due to the negligence of domestic medicine production; most raw materials are imported which allows private and foreign companies to control the medicine market. This hinders the market from benefiting from the Medicine Holding Company’s subsidiaries.
In May, the prime minister decided to increase the prices of all medicines that cost less than EGP 30 by 20%, at a maximum of EGP 6 per package.
The subsidiaries of the Medical Holding Company have benefited from that decision, as 750 of its medical products now cost between EGP 1 and EGP 5, and 240 other products now cost between EGP 5 and EGP 10.
These subsidiaries incurred a loss of EGP 200m in the last fiscal year, as a result of not raising the prices of medicines.
Sami El-Mashad, member of the Health Committee, said that they have a number of questions and inquiries about the decline in market shares of the Medical Holding Company’s subsidiaries during the last decade from 75% to less than 10%.
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Exchange rate semi-stable at CBE, banks on Wednesday
This week the national currency lost EGP 1.5-2 against the US dollar, but on Wednesday the Egyptian pound stabilised at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and other banks in the market.
At banks on Wednesday, the US dollar changed hands at EGP 17-17.5 for buying and EGP 17.4-18.25 for selling—the same rate as Tuesday.
The dollar has been gaining ground against the pound since Sunday, which caused alarm in the market.
Mohamed Abdel Aal, a board member of both the Suez Canal Bank and the Arab Sudanese Bank, said that it is not good, nor necessary, for the US dollar price to follow a downtrend so early after the flotation of the national currency.
“It should be moving up and down according to supply and demand,” he added.
Moreover, he predicted that the rate will move around EGP 16 in the coming days. He attributed this expectation to encouraging investment and hedge funds to sell their US dollars and invest in treasury bills and bonds denominated in pounds, in addition to countering the expected demand on the dollar after the CBE allowed banks to finance imports of non-essential goods.
He assured that the variations in exchange rates among banks and its movement is normal.
“The new exchange rate policy needs an appropriate period to pass through the transition phase and ensure the effectiveness of the market,” he explained. “The availability of the greenback and emergence of market-making banks and primary dealers who would cover the demand and set the fair price might take some time.”
Tamer Youssef, head of the treasury at a foreign bank operating in the Egyptian market, said that full flotation makes currency more sensitive to changes that affect demand and the supply, which reflects on the official exchange rate.
He added that this is something new in Egypt, where in recent years the CBE had always set a fixed price, while the unofficial market moved according to market conditions.
He also assured that the rise and fall of the exchange rate is normal until it reaches a real price that both balances supply and demand and achieves the state’s monetary targets, especially price stability.
He pointed out that the state is currently aiming to attract foreign investors to invest in government debt instruments and the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), as a step prior to attracting foreign direct investment. “This will not be realised before establishing an attractive exchange rate and a high return on investment in the national currency,” he explained. “This is why the rate is likely to remain around EGP 16 for about three months.”
He added that this will then be followed by inflow of direct investments, which would raise Egypt’s credit rating and increase its foreign exchange reserves—eventually leading the exchange rate lower to EGP 14.
