Chairman of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ismail Jaber said that The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) is currently working to re-classify the list of energy intensive industries contained in the prime minister's resolutions, said chairman Ismail Jaber. These resolutions prevent the IDA from approving certain projects before they receive approval from the Supreme Council of Energy chaired by the prime minister, he added. "The prime minister's decision to generally categorise these industries as energy-intensive, such as petrochemicals, ceramic, copper or aluminum, did not distinguish between the different types of manufacturing activities that fall under these broad categories," said Jaber. "The IDA is receiving some requests from investors to establish petrochemical factories, for example, and they do not need large amounts of gas and electricity, yet they fall under the category ‘petrochemicals', which requires approval from the Supreme Council of Energy," explained Jaber. There are some projects that do not need gas, or do not need it in large quantities, and there is no need to present these projects to the Supreme Council of Energy, Jaber said. "We are developing a new mechanism permitting direct approval from the IDA for any industrial project as long as it does not exceed a certain level of electricity consumption and is within the limits of the quantities allocated by the Ministry of Electricity for the industry," he said. The chairman added that the goal of this mechanism is to facilitate investors in obtaining the necessary approvals for their projects as long as they are within the limits permitted by the Ministry of Electricity, rather than waiting for approval from the Supreme Council of Energy. Jaber continued by saying that "the mechanism which the IDA is currently developing in order to raise a memorandum to the minister of industry is only related to electricity. As for gas, the projects which require large quantities of gas should be presented to the Supreme Council of Energy."
