Egypt plans 100MW solar power plant

The Egyptian Electricity Ministry has unveiled plans to build a new $700m 100MW solar power plant between 2012 and 2017 that should further establish the country as one of the leading developers of utility-scale solar plants.

According to reports in the local Al-Ahram newspaper, the solar power project at Kom Ombo, near the Aswan High Dam hydro-electric plant, will be financed by a number of international institutions, including the African Development Fund and the World Bank. Additional finance is also expected to be provided through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offsetting scheme.

The project is part of a five-year plan running from 2012-2017 designed to establish the Egypt as one of the top generators of solar energy in North Africa, electricity ministry undersecretary Aktham Abou el-Ella told news agency Reuters.

While most of the world suffers from a liquidity crisis, Egypt faces an abundance of liquidity, says Osama Mourad, CEO of Arab Finance. He tells CNBC's Yousef Gamal El-Din, Anna Edwards and Lisa Oake why he is bullish on the country's banking and financial sectors.

* The concession involves investment of $700 million

* Will add 640,000 sq m to its 925,000 sq m at port

(Adds detail, company quote, Transport Min comment)

CAIRO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - DP World DPW.DI has won a concession to double the size of its container operations at Sokhna Port on Egypt's Red Sea coast, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Sokhna, near the southern end of the Suez Canal, is Cairo's main port for cargo from the Far East.

The concession will allow DP World to extend the length of its quay by 1,300 metres and add 1.75 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo capacity to its operations, DP World said. The new capacity is expected to come online in four years.

Mumbai, Oct 14 (PTI) In its bid to cash-in on the increasing purchasing power and taste for newer destinations amongst Indians, Egypt is eyeing a good share of Indian travellers, whom it expects would undertake overseas trips over the next five-years, a senior Egyptian Government official said today. "We are looking at receiving seven-lakh tourists from India over the next five-years," Egypt Tourism Authority's Head of the International Tourism Sector, Samy Mahmood, told reporters here. Egypt Tourism Authorities have for the first time organised a road show in India at cities including Delhi and Mumbai to promote tourism. Around 77,000 Indian tourists had visited Egypt till September this year, Mahmood said, adding that by December this year it is likely to be around 1.10-1.20-lakh. "India is a big market for us. It is the future of tourism and will be even ahead of China in times to come.Today, the purchasing power of Indians has gone up considerably.

Utility metering company Sensus has landed what is calls a “major contract” to sell 28,000 commercial water meters to a state-owned utility in Egypt.
The deal is significant for a couple of reasons. No. 1, it brings Sensus’ water metering technology to Egypt for the first time, strengthening the Raleigh-based company’s presence in North Africa. No. 2 is the sheer size of the order.
“This order is big because of the quantity of commercial & industrial (C&I) meters,” writes Mike Tracy, vice president of North American Water at Sensus, in an e-mail response to a Triangle Business Journal inquiry. “In this segment of the market, 28,000 is a very large order. Consider that a large US city may have 5,000 C&I meters.”

CAIRO — Egypt has ordered nine private companies providing satellite feeds to renew their permits in what critics say is an attempt to assert control over the transmission of foreign broadcasts, media reports said on Thursday.
The information and communications ministries have ordered nine private companies that provide the feeds to reapply for permits, the independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom reported.

Alstom Grid has signed a contract with Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co. (EETC) for the supply of Alstom's e-terra suite of energy management system software applications.

EETC will use e-terra software to improve grid reliability, stability and security, as well as to manage the interconnections with neighboring countries Libya and Syria through Jordan. Alstom will also deliver a market management system that can provide EETC with real-time tariff information.

The Egyptian pound, trading around a five-year low against the dollar after foreigners sold local treasuries, may hold within 1 percent of its current level in the next six months, according to BNP Paribas Egypt.

“There are no signs of mass Egyptian sales of the pound which would have a significant impact on the exchange rate,” Shahinaz Foda, head of treasury, fixed income and wealth management at BNP Paribas Egypt, said by telephone. The central bank may have supported the weakening of the pound, but further devaluation would not support its goal of keeping inflation low, she said.

Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, is set to arrive in Israel this week to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, Ynet learned Monday.

The visit is aimed at renewing peace talks with the Palestinians, in light of the recent stalemate over Israel's refusal to renew the freeze in West Bank settlement construction.

CAIRO — Egypt has revoked licenses for satellite television uplinks, the latest in an intensified crackdown on the media ahead of the country's crucial parliamentary elections later this month.
The state-owned MENA news agency says Information Minister Annas el-Fiqi on Monday ordered all companies providing the service or television networks with uplinks to reapply for permits.

"Some 1,079 Chinese companies are now operating in Egypt, raising the Chinese investments to $323.9 million from 1970 till 2010," said Saleh.