The South Helwan Power Station project won the Abdul Latif Youssef Al-Hamad Development Award in the Arab region during the 2023 joint annual meetings of Arab financial institutions held in Rabat, Morocco. This was presented by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) in a competition with 11 projects. It was nominated for the award, including two projects from Egypt and 9 projects from Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Mauritania and Yemen, in addition to a project implemented at the regional level. The award is presented to the best economic and social development project in the Arab countries, funded in part or in full by the institutions of the coordination group, with priority given to joint projects between Arab countries. The award aims to encourage and highlight successful development projects that have addressed existing problems, or contributed to strengthening the economic and social capabilities in the Arab countries; thus spotlighting an inspiration for creativity, good management and efficient completion of projects. Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat confirmed that the award of the Abdul Latif Youssef Al-Hamad Development Award for the South Helwan Power Station project reflects the importance of the project and the efforts that Egypt is making with development partners from Arab institutions to develop infrastructure, especially in the energy sector, and to enhance its electricity capabilities and provide needs and exports to neighboring countries. The project reflects the importance of multilateral cooperation, as 4 institutions contributed to its financing; the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). Al-Mashat explained that the South Helwan Power Station project is not the first within the development cooperation portfolio to receive awards from regional or international institutions, reflecting Egypt's success in cooperating with development partners in formulating projects and establishing sound implementation mechanisms to ensure their sustainability and ability to advance the development process in the region. Al-Mashat pointed out that the Bahr El-Baqar Water Treatment Plant won the 2021 Global Project of the Year for the best construction works from the US magazine Engineering News-Record (ENR). Moreover, the Al Mahsama Water Reclamation Plant won the 2020 Best Global Project in the field of recycling and use of agricultural wastewater from ENR, along with 3 other international awards. Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker stressed the close cooperation between the Ministry of Electricity, the AFESD, and Arab financing institutions in many electricity sector projects that contribute significantly to various development fields. Shaker referred to what the South Helwan Power Station represents, in addition to covering part of the increased demand for electric energy in Egypt, the project offered over 6,000 direct job opportunities during construction and 400 permanent job opportunities for operation and maintenance, in addition to third-party job opportunities. Moreover, the project is considered the first station in which the ash extractor system is applied from exhaust gasses, which leads to reducing emissions and preserving the environment. Details of the Award & Its Objectives The award aims to highlight the importance of Arab development work, raise the level of selection, evaluation and implementation of development projects in the Arab region, encourage Arab and international investment in Arab development projects, whether economic or social, and highlight the experience gained in successful development projects to Arab individuals, bodies and institutions that work in the field of economic and social development. The award establishes a number of precise criteria for evaluating the nominated projects, at the level of pre-implementation services such as technical and financial studies, as well as the quality and type of achievement, designs and required specifications, as well as the impact of the project in terms of providing job opportunities, its impact on the domestic product and the expected economic and social return, the contribution to exports, its application of environmental standards, its role in implementing the SDGs, and the use of modern technology. The award was received during the activities of the annual meetings of Arab financial institutions and authorities, held in Rabat, Morocco, by Engineer Mohamed Mokhtar Fahmy, President of the Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company of the Electricity Holding Partnership, and Hassan Younis, representative of the Egyptian Power Station Engineering Consulting Company (EGSCO). South Helwan Company also received a financial award to highlight the importance of development work. The South Helwan Power Station project is one of the projects implemented to support the capacity of the electricity network, as the project enhances the state's ability to provide the increasing demand for energy to support the growth rate by adding a production capacity of 1950 megawatts to the unified network, and it also accommodates a large number of specialized and non-specialized workers, 4000 job opportunities. The project supports the Upper and Central Upper Egypt regions by establishing new factories and expanding development projects in general. It is worth noting that Egypt participates in the capital of Arab financial institutions and entities, as it is one of the countries that contributes the most to the AFESD with a capital of 183.2m Kuwaiti dinars, also contributing to finance SMEs in Arab countries with a value of $20m, and with the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation with a value of 1.9m Kuwaiti dinars.
