The second day of Egypt's Economic Development Conference saw the country sign agreements and memoranda of understanding with international companies worth $US 158 billion dollars. The economic conference kicked off from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday. Most of the deals signed on Saturday were concentrated in the field of energy, reaching over $30 billion worth of investment. Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years, with power outages surging in the summer. Egyptian authorities have often owed the power crisis to a larger fuel crisis and have been taking measures in recent months to diversify sources of energy. The government has turned to renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. The state has also passed legislations allowing the generation of energy from coal, despite environmental concerns. DEALS IN THE FIELD OF ELECTRICITY China's State Grid signed with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company an agreement to develop Egypt's electricity transmission grid at the cost of $1.8 billion, the ministry of electricity announced in a statement. German industrial giant Siemens signed a group of memoranda of understanding with Egypt's Electricity Ministry to establish power stations at the cost of $10 billion, the ministry said. Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker also signed two memoranda of understanding with Saudi Arabia-based power and water project developer ACWA Power and the United Arab Emirates' state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, the ministry said. The first memorandum of understanding was signed with ACWA Power and Masdar to establish a 2200 megawatts electricity power station, a 1500 megawatt solar energy station and a 500 megawatt wind energy station, at the cost of $2.4 billion. The second memorandum was signed with ACWA Power to establish a power station generating 2000 megawatts of electricity through the use of coal, costing $7 billion. The power station is scheduled to expand to generate 4000 megawatts of electricity. GAS AND PETROLEUM Egypt's Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail signed an energy deal worth $12 billion (91.5 billion Egyptian pounds) with energy firm British Petroleum on Saturday. Ismail said the deal is set to provide Egypt with a quarter of local energy production and will contribute to filling the gap in demand of petroleum products by 2020, reported the state news agency MENA. The deal will see the British energy giant develop 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 55 million barrels of condensates in the West Nile Delta area. Italy's oil company Eni signed with Egypt a framework agreement worth around $5 billion to develop the country's oil resources over the next four years, the company announced on Saturday. Eni aims to develop 200 million barrels of oil and around 37 billion cubic metres of gas, it said in a statement. "Egypt remains at the heart of the Eni Group's international strategy; an alliance that has lasted for more than 60 years," the statement read. Egypt's government is also scheduled to sign on Sunday an agreement with British energy company BG to invest $4 billion over the next two years, reported Reuters. REAL ESTATE Egypt's Housing Ministry announced on Saturday signing a memorandum of understanding with the Emirati Aabar and the Egyptian Palm Hills real estate companies for a project worth $19.7 billion, reported Reuters. The new projects will be located in the 6 of October city west of Cairo. Egypt's government launched on Friday a new administrative capital east of Cairo at the cost of $45 billion, due to be built within the next five to seven years. FOOD The international Beyti company announced on Saturday it will invest $4 billion in Egypt's food industry, reported MENA. The investment would involve establishing a new juice factory in Beheira, the company's executive director said. PepsiCo will meanwhile expand its production in Egypt by investing $500 million this year, its business unit manager for North East Africa told Reuters on Saturday. OTHER BUSINESSES The Islamic Development Bank signed with the Egyptian government six agreements worth $3.875 billion, according to a statement from the ministry of international cooperation. The agreements include a project to develop the International Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, and a petroleum refinery in Assiut. Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi also signed two deals on Saturday with the Emirati Swaidan company worth $6 billion, reported MENA. Egypt has long campaigned for the economic conference among regional and international trade allies, hopeful that it would help revamp its ailing economy after four years of political turmoil. Source: Egyptian Streets
