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Egypt's SMEs Development Agency allocates EGP 200m to convert cars to natural gas Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry, witnessed the agreement signing ceremony.
The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) signed on Monday two contracts worth EGP 200m with the Natural Gas Vehicles Company – Cargas and the Egyptian International Gas Technology Company – Gastec, affiliated to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, to finance the presidential programme for converting cars to natural gas. Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry, witnessed the agreement signing ceremony. Hassanein Mohamed, Chairperson of Cargas; Abdel Fattah Farhat, Chairperson of Gastec; and Raafat Abbas, head of the central sector for non-financial services in MSMEDA. El Molla said this project comes within the framework of the presidential initiative to expand the number of cars running on natural gas. He added that the project represents a positive model for effective cooperation between government institutions in order to facilitate citizens to benefit from the service of converting to natural gas for their cars, especially with its multiple advantages and economic dimension in light of the low price of gas compared to liquid fuels from gasoline and diesel, which achieves savings for its users, along with integration with the state's plan to maximize the use of available resources, noting that this new phase of the project will contribute effectively to the implementation of the plan to popularize the use of natural gas for cars as a safe, clean, available and economic fuel that will advance economic development. Nevine Gamea said that those deals were within the second stage of the presidential initiative, in which MSMEDA allocated EGP 1.2bn finance to convert 150,000 cars (taxi, microbus, and private cars) within three years to natural gas. She added that this project contributes to maintaining job opportunities for workers in the field of transportation by increasing the income of the target groups. It reported that the use of natural gas significantly reduces air polluting emissions, and its gaseous texture prevents its leakage, which reduces harmful effects on soil or groundwater, which helps preserve the environment in addition to its high quality, as its octane number exceeds 120 Octane. She explained that, since the start of this activity, the agency has made available EGP 452m of financing, through which 72,300 cars have been converted to run on natural gas.
