Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of Belgian DEME Group, on Wednesday, as part of his participation in the Global Gateway Forum organized by the European Union Commission on 25-26 October. The meeting was attended by Badr Abdel-Aty, Egyptian Ambassador to Belgium, and several company officials. Madbouly highlighted Egypt's interest in green transformation and increasing the use of green and clean energy. He outlined the steps taken by the government to support investment in green hydrogen projects, such as the establishment of the National Council for Green Hydrogen and its Derivatives, chaired by him. He also mentioned the formation of the technical secretariat of the National Hydrogen Council, headed by Randa Al-Minshawy, First Assistant to the Prime Minister. This technical secretariat is responsible for coordinating among the various government agencies involved, and ensuring that all required decisions are issued to facilitate the procedures for green hydrogen projects. "We have doubled the incentives provided and allocated to green hydrogen, including a draft law on incentives for green hydrogen projects and its derivatives, which has been referred to Parliament and is expected to be issued this year," he added. The Prime Minister assured the Egyptian government's readiness to support the project and that he is willing to communicate with company officials to ease their work. During the meeting, the CEO of DEME presented the company's projects in Egypt, noting that the company is keen on expanding green hydrogen projects in Egypt and expressing his appreciation for the support that the company's projects in Egypt received from President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Regarding the company's project to produce green hydrogen in Jarjoub port, the CEO confirmed that significant progress has been made toward final agreement and starting project implementation in coordination with the Ministry of Transport and other concerned parties. He explained that the project will be implemented in three phases, with investments in the first phase only amounting to about $3bn, and that its production will be allocated for export to the European market. Company officials also discussed their ongoing cooperation with the Ministry of Transport for developing the river transport system. They also referred to their ongoing cooperation with the Suez Canal Authority regarding the Bardawil Lake development project. They said: "We hope to expand the scope of cooperation regarding this project to develop the lake. There are many investors interested in participating in this project, and there are great opportunities to finance the project with support from the European Union." During the meeting, the Executive Director of Antwerp Port praised the great progress achieved in developing Egyptian ports and expressed their readiness to enhance cooperation in providing technical support and capacity building in the field of green ports and port digitization. He noted that they are looking forward to implementing projects in this important field with funding from the European Union. Abdel-Aty said that the Belgian company is interested in expanding its activities in Egypt and is also seeking funding for several of these projects from the European Union, including the Bardawil Lake development project.
