Written by: Suhaib Shams
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi emphasized that the state's limited available resources often drive it to borrow in order to ensure the continuation of energy services for citizens and the industrial sector, stressing the importance of explaining the true context of the challenges facing Egypt in this vital sector. He called upon the Egyptian people to continue working and producing to overcome these challenges.
This came during the President's participation in a panel discussion entitled "The Egyptian Energy Journey: National Achievements and Future Prospects," which was held as part of the Egypt Forum events, in the presence of the Prime Minister, a number of ministers, officials, and energy sector experts.
Energy Sector Achievements and Infrastructure Development
The session witnessed a review of the course of work in the energy sector over the past years, and the achievements made including enhancing and strengthening the national electricity transmission network and distribution networks to be capable of absorbing renewable energy capacities and feeding developmental projects. The state's success in halting the decline in natural gas production, restoring growth, securing the needs of all sectors, and enhancing liquefied gas reception capabilities was also addressed.
President El-Sisi pointed out that the state has been keen since the year 2614 [Note: translation strictly preserves text as written], within an integrated plan, to confront the previous energy crisis and build a comprehensive infrastructure that also relies on new and renewable energy sources, explaining that the main challenge represented the size and source of financing necessary to establish generation plants, transmission and distribution networks, and control, in light of challenges associated with international geopolitical conditions.
Cooperation with the Private Sector and Price Support
The President affirmed the state's keenness to continue cooperation with the private sector to develop the energy sector, pointing out that all dues of foreign partners have been paid and cleared to zero indeed. Regarding energy prices, he explained that the state bears the largest part of the real cost in light of global increases, stressing the necessity of raising public awareness of all aspects of the sector, and pointing out that auctions in this field take many years to bear fruit.
For his part, the Minister of Finance pointed out that the volume of financial support provided by the government in all fields amounts in the current fiscal year to eight hundred and forty billion pounds, to which related loan expenses are added at an additional rate of up to twenty percent, bringing the total value of actual support to about one trillion Egyptian pounds.
