The Housing Minister conveys the congratulations of President El Sisi to President John Magufuli for his re-election.
El-Gazzar: The Egyptian government puts the success of this project on its priorities agenda and there is continuous follow-up from President El Sisi for the implementation process.
The Egyptian leader, government and people were and will continue to participate and support its African brothers in their development projects for the interest of our nations and peoples
Dr. Mohamed Shaker – Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy and Dr. Assem El Gazar – Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities participated in the in the ceremony of diversion of Rufiji River to resume the implementation of the main dam of Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant and Dam in Tanzania with a capacity of 2115 MW. This was in the presence of the Tanzanian Prime Minister Dr. Kassim Majaliwa and a number of Tanzanian ministers, Ambassador Hamdy Loza - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Mohamed Gaber Aboul Wafa - Egypt's ambassador to Tanzania.
The delegation includes officials from the ministries of electricity and housing, Armed Forces Engineering Authority and Egyptian banks that the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr provided guarantee letters for the project worth 450 million US$. The officials of the Egyptian JV “The Arab Contractors Company and Elsewedy Electric” attended the ceremony headed by Eng. Sayed Farook – President and CEO of the Arab Contractors Company, Eng. Mohsen Salah - Chairman of the Arab Contractors for Investments, Eng. Sadek Elsewedy – Chairman of Elsewedy Electric, Eng. Ahmed El Assar – Senior Vice Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company and Eng. Wael Hamdy – Vice Chairman of Elsewedy Electric.
During the ceremony, Dr. Assem El Gazzar delivered a speech started by conveying the congratulations of President El Sisi to President John Magufuli for his re-election, besides the congratulation on the diversion of Rufiji River to resume the implementation of the main dam of Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant and Dam.
The Housing Minister congratulated the Tanzanian President for his re-election. He added that the Egyptian government puts the success of this project on its priorities agenda and there is continuous follow-up from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi for the implementation process and instructions to adhere to the contractual conditions of the project. Therefore, one of the first assignments I received from his Excellency President El Sisi is the consistent follow-up to this project, which is on his agenda of interests and the interest of your country as well including the leadership, government and people.
The minister added that since this presidential mandate, a working group has been formed at the Ministry of Housing to follow up with the Egyptian JV “The Arab Contractors Company and Elsewedy Electric” all the details and the implementation process, helping in overcoming any obstacles, solving any problem and pushing the work progress. Besides, there are several meetings held to follow up the executive status of the project. In addition to visiting work sites many times and providing periodical reports to President El Sisi about the project.
El Gazzar stated that the Egyptian building and construction sector within the past 6 years achieved several successes that everybody witnesses. Our Egyptian companies have good reputation in the region in this sector, whither in relation to the implementation quality or commitment to the time schedule. It is an honor to the Egyptian JV which implements the project including the engineers, technicians, admins and workers to participate in achieving the dream of the Tanzanian people.
He added that we acknowledge the importance of this project that we lived in the same conditions previously and face challenges but we overcame it. We built the High Dam a long time ago and face other challenges in the shortage of electricity but through the political leadership and good planning and vision we succeed in transforming the shortage into surplus with thousands of megawatts. Consequently, we accomplished many services and developmental projects within 6 years which changed the map of Egypt.
The Minister of Housing added that we thanked the Tanzanian government for its support to the Egyptian JV to overcome the challenges and obstacles as the floods and difficult atmosphere conditions. Besides, the government exerts expansive efforts to gain the electrochemical equipment required for the project.
Besides, the Egyptian JV officials appreciated the exerted efforts of the Tanzanian workers who are more than 5000 workers and participated in the implementation of the project. Moreover, the JV officials emphasized on their readiness to provide the required training for the Tanzanian workers in all aspects of the building and construction sector. In addition to these, we confirm that we depend on the Tanzanian local materials in the implementation of the project; we resort to the exported materials in a limited scale.
Finally, Dr. El Gazzar congratulated the Tanzanian people on this occasion and wished them prosperous success.