Farooq Abdullah to visit Egypt; talk business

[ejazr]

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4815353

Cairo, Jan 18 (PTI) Minister of New & Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah will visit Egypt from January 19 leading a 14-member strong Indian business delegation consisting of top companies engaged in wind and solar energy fields.

Abdullah will visit Egypt from January 19 to January 23 at the invitation of Hassan Younes, Minister of Electricity & Energy, Egypt, officials have said.

Abdullah will be accompanied by a 14-member strong business delegation consisting of top companies engaged in wind and solar energy fields.

During the visit both the Ministers are scheduled to hold discussions to explore further cooperation in the field of new and renewable energy.

The Indian business delegation will be meeting the Egyptian businessmen engaged in the energy sector to hold discussions and one-to-one meetings to explore possibilities of entering into concrete business in terms of joint investment prospects as well as technology transfer.

Recognising the fact that renewable energy has a significant potential to mitigate global climate change, address regional and local environmental concerns, reduce poverty and increase energy security, Government of India encourages private sector investment in renewable energy sector.

As a result, Indian companies have made rapid strides in developing new technologies through Research and Development both in wind and solar energy.

Some of the Indian companies are the global leaders in this field. Government of India believes that there is a vast potential for greater cooperation between India and Egypt in this field of renewable energy.

It is with this objective that the Minister is leading a business delegation to Egypt.

 

[ejazr]

India-Egypt launch renewable energy pilot project

India is planning to start a pilot project on the renewable energy in Egypt which will develop the bilateral cooperation and also support the Indian private sector to begin the development of solar and wind energy sectors in India. When Farooq Abdullah, the Minister of New and Renewable Energy visited the country both of them also signed a MoU and he also expects this partnership is a win-win situation for Egypt in the renewable energy.

Farooq Abdullah visited the country after getting invitation from Hassan Younes, the Minister of Electricity and Energy in Egypt along with 14 member strong business delegation which includes top most companies dealing in the field of solar and wind energy. Abdullah said they wanted to support each other and the energy is good for all which is free also. It does not have any effect on the environment when compared to fossil fuel which is become more costly, he added.

Farooq Abdullah said people have to realize few things like how to fulfill the demand and how much time will it utilize to subsidize the level we are subsidizing. R Swaminathan, the Indian Ambassador to Egypt said MoU contains policy formulation, training programmes, local manufacturing of equipment and exchanging information, joint research and development. The main aim is to make the Indian private sector to enter into Egypt's program that can provide 20% of the energy from renewable energy sources by 2020.

The renewable energy project will be developed in an Egyptian village and it will include funds from both the countries. Abdullah added Egypt has a very different feature that can help it being centre of Africa, Europe and the Arab countries. India gets 10% of energy from the renewable sources such as wind and the country is also planning to generate around 20 mw from solar energy by 2020.