Mubarak, al-Assad and Abdullah inaugurate power linkage project
Regional, Politics, 3/15/2001

Egyptian President Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan yesterday inaugurated the joint power linkage project from Deir Ali station on the joint Syrian-Jordanian frontiers.

The three leaders, together, cut the ribbon and unveiled commemorative stone launching the giant economic project, then, they pressed buttons of the power linkage at Deir Ali station and inspected some sections of the station.

The power linkage project among the three countries is one of the biggest projects that would allow the exchange of electric power through benefiting from difference of peak hours .

This step would help power linkage form Turkey to Morocco before the end of this year as an initial step towards linking Arab power grid to United European grid.

Launching the inaugural ceremony, Syrian Minister of Electricity Monib Saem Al-Dahr welcomed the leaders of the three countries describing the power linkage project as beneficial to the peoples of the three countries.

Monib Saem Al-Dahr reviewed the stages of establishing power linkage project that started between Egypt and Jordan last year.

The project, which was linked to Syria, will be further extended to all Arab countries and then to Europe and Africa.

He indicated that this project would provide a giant power network.

He considered the project as a building block for the Arab common market. Al-Assad said that the Arab unified grid, after the end of power linkage project, would be one of the biggest grids in the world.

"The Arab engineers had hopes for achieving this project, starting from their first conference held in the late 1940s," Al Assad said.

He explained that this project would provide many reasons for collaborating efforts in the age of high-tech and informatics.

"The project is the outcome of joint Arab action in cooperation with turkey in the field of energy," he said.

Al -Assad made it clear that the early recognition of the importance of energy in the modern age, as a key element in the development process, motivated the electricity ministers of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey to agree on unifying electricity grids in the five countries and conduct studies necessary for the project in their first meeting in Ankara in 1989.

The Syrian Electricity Minister noted that Arab cooperation with Turkey over the past years emerged in putting the rules of linking and signing the general trade agreement in Amman in 1993.

He lauded the support of the Kuwaiti Social and Economic development Fund in financing the establishment of the project in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The Egyptian-Jordanian power grid was first operated at the end of 1998, he said, adding that we were currently celebrating the inauguration of the Syrian-Jordanian power linkage.

He voiced hope that the Syrian-Turkish linkage would be finalized at the end of the current year, and that of Syria and Iraq would be implemented within two years starting from 2001.

He explained that by implementing the six-country power grid, these countries would have electricity net, with a combined capacity of more than 45,000 megawatt. Electricity will flow in all directions from Istanbul in the north to Cairo in the south and Baghdad in the East.

At the end of his speech, the Syrian Minster thanked all staff of the electricity ministries in Egypt, Jordan and Syria as well as the general director of the Kuwaiti fund for development.

The Jordanian power and mineral wealth minster Wael Sabri gave a speech following that of his Syrian counterpart.

The Jordanian Minister hailed the power linkage project as a development pillar that marks a remarkable stride towards cost reduction in high-cost power stations.

The Arab Gulf States completed an inter-Gulf power linkage study, he said, hoping that the Syria-Jordan-Egypt grid would be linked to that of the Gulf states soon via Aqaba.

Ali Al-Saeedi, in turn, reviewed the power-meshing plan between the Arab and European networks through Morocco and Spain.

He said the link-up would provide an opportunity to set up specialized stations to export power.

The unified-Arab grid, he said, will contribute to the inflow of information in the future.

The Syrian Minister of electricity presented trophies to the Arab leaders before they kicked off the project in Deir Ali station on the Syrian-Jordan borders.

Ali Al-Saeedi, in turn, reviewed the power-meshing plan between the Arab and European network through Morocco and Spain.

He said the link-up would provide an opportunity to set up specialized stations to export power.

The inter-Arab grid, he said, will contribute to the inflow of information in the future.

Previous Stories:
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  Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian tripartite summit   (2/13/2001)
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