Jordan electric connection to Egypt ready to go

Financed by the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Socioeconomic Development, a project to tie Jordan to Egypt with electrical power is due to begin operation in a few weeks. The project cost $250 million. Jordan and Egypt are stepping forward to operate the project within the next few weeks, an informed source told reporters.

Following a meeting yesterday with Egypt's Minister of Electricity Maher Abaza, Jordanain Minister of Electricity and Mineral Wealth Salih al- Horani was quoted by Jordanian News Agency as saying they discussed the execution of the project to tie both electricity networks in Jordan and Egypt.

Representatives of a Norwegian and Canadian consulting companies attended the meeting, he added.

"I am acquainted with the steps completed," he said," We agreed to carry out the necessary decisions required for accelerating steps so that the project can operate by next May."

The Electricity network project among the eastern Arab states and the North African countries was considered the first in the Arab World, he added.

The electrical cables lie 80 meters deep in Aqaba Gulf waters and is 300 km long, passing from Egypt through Sudan to Jordan. The project is financed by the Arab Fund for Socioeconomic Development based in Kuwait.

In their meeting, the ministers decided to invite private-sector investment in the electrical power sphere, al-Horani added.

The meeting also discussed the necessity for a conference to be held, in which the five ministers of electricity in the five countries that signed the agreement, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Turkey, would attend. Methods related to executing the electrical agreement are due to be discussed at the expected ministerial conference.