Mena Glass to build float glass plant Mena Glass, through its fully owned subsidiary Sphinx Glass, signed a 97 million euro agreement Thursday with Italian contractor Ianua SPA for the engineering, plant construction, assembly and supervision of a new greenfield float glass manufacturing facility. Mena Glass is a company established by Citadel Capital and a group of leading regional investors to pursue investments in the promising Middle East and North Africa glass industry, with an initial capital of $120 million. Sphinx Glass greenfield plant will be located in Sadat City, some 70 kilometers north of Cairo, and has licensed world-class production technologies from PPG Industries Inc., a market leader in high-quality float glass. The 220,000 square-meter factory will have a production capacity of 600 tons of glass per day and will sell to both the local and export markets, splitting its initial production evenly between the two. According to Sphinx Glass board member Marianne Ghali, The new plant will be producing the highest quality clear, colored and reflective float glass for use in both the automotive and construction industries. The plant will have the capability to produce glass with thicknesses varying between 2 mm and 19 mm. Tarek Salah, managing director of projects at Citadel Capital, expects the factory to create 200 new jobs. In addition, he says, The construction phase, which will begin immediately and should be completed within 24 months, will employ some 2,000 workers. Hisham El-Khazindar, cofounder and managing director of Citadel Capital, said, This greenfield investment by Mena Glass, coming shortly after its $70 million investment in Misr Glass Manufacturing (MGM), a leading manufacturer and exporter of glass containers, reflects Citadel Capital s strong belief in Egypt s competitive advantage in the glass industry. We aim to develop MENA Glass into the leading regional glass producer. Mena Glass is a company established by Citadel Capital to pursue investments in the glass industry in Egypt and the region. In addition to Sphinx Glass, Mena Glass owns a 35 percent stake in MGM. $1.8 million for three electricity projects Electricity and Energy Minister Hassan Yunis said Friday that Egypt signed three contracts to construct power plants east of Cairo at a cost of about LE 10 billion, reported Kuwait News Agency. Yunis told reporters here that the projects initial contracts were signed, adding that the stations would be constructed along with 11 others in the next five years. The stations are expected to produce about 8,640 megawatts of electricity which are expected to cover the annual increase of electrical load, said the minister, adding that the plants would provide energy for planned tourism projects. -Agencies Nazif: Electricity production nuclear does not mean the removal of energy subsidies Speaking on Egyptian radio, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said the decision to establish nuclear power plants have nothing to do with talk of possibly lifting energy subsidies. Nuclear fuel is low-cost compared to oil, Nazif added. He emphasized that the Ministry of Electricity is capable of financing the project. The premier stressed that advanced technology has made it safe to use nuclear energy to generate electricity. We re in the process of establishing a nuclear safety authority, Nazif said. The body would either be affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Peaceful Purposes of Nuclear Power or the cabinet, he added. A Nuclear Power Plants Authority and an Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority are already operative in Egypt. -SIS House of Nasser to turn into a museum President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree that would turn the house of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in Manshiat Al Bakry to a museum. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the decision to transform the house of Nasser into a museum in tribute of the role he played. -SIS API secretariat to meet in Sharm El-Sheikh The secretariat of the Kuwait-based Arab Planning Institute (API) will hold its semi-annual meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on January 14. The meeting, to be attended by Kuwaiti Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shimali, will review the scientific activity of the academic year 2006/2007, said Ola Al-Hakim, director of Egypt s National Planning Institute, which will host the meeting. The meeting will be opened by Minister of State for Economic Development Osman Mohamed Osman. It will discuss the API study and study agenda in the field of social and economic development in the Arab countries, she said. It is scheduled also to mull economic ties among the Arab countries as well as the API training program in the field of development of human resources, she added. In 1966 the government of Kuwait in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) established the Kuwait Institute for Economic and Social Planning in the Middle East as an independent Kuwaiti Institute. In 1972, the Institute transformed into an independent Arab Institution called the Arab Planning Institute (API). The API is a non-profit regional organization whose primary mission is to advance the cause of economic and social development in the Arab countries through training, research, consultancy, expert-group meetings and publication. -Agencies
