Located at a crossroads between Africa, Asia and Europe, Egypt remains one of the world’s most strategically important countries, as it has been for millennia. Egypt has the third-largest GDP in the Arab world, after oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is considerably more diversified than many economies in the region, with manufacturing and agriculture key contributors, making up 14.5% and 15.7% of GDP, respectively, according to the Central Bank of Egypt, as well as oil and gas extraction.
A $9bn deal inked in Egypt will give a substantial boost to the country's electricity generation capacity, helping the government address power shortages and support a growing population and economy.
Garnering more investment, loans and assistance packages than had been widely expected, Egypt’s Economic Development Conference (EEDC) secured investment contracts worth $36.2bn, an additional $18.6bn in infrastructure contracts to set up power plants, and $5.2bn in loans from international financial institutions.
Egypt has been making impressive progress in straightening up its balance sheet in recent months. Steep cuts in energy subsidies coupled with a drop in world oil prices have given the Middle East’s most populous country some fiscal breathing space, following three years of increasing budget deficits, mounting debt and reduced foreign currency reserves.
Over the past year the shortfall in Egypt’s electricity capacity has become increasingly apparent, with load-shedding becoming a regular occurrence. The government has aggressively sought to address the issue with demand-side management, from a reintroduction of the daylight savings time regime, which had been dropped in 2011, to an initiative to replace standard light bulbs...
Solar energy has played a secondary role to wind power within Egypt’s renewables strategy for some time, despite the nation’s obvious advantages in terms of abundant sunlight and large tracts of undeveloped land. In 2014, however, brought a number of clear indicators that suggest that solar power remains very much front and centre in the government’s vision for the energy...
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