EGYPT - Profile - Dr. Ali Fahmi Al Saidi.

The Minister Electricity and Energy since Oct. 9, 1999, Dr. Saidi is a very prominent engineer. He replaced Maher Abaza who became Deputy Chairman and CEO of the Midor Oil Refining venture. With a doctorate from an American university, Saidi was brought to the cabinet by Premier Obeid to instill a more professional regime for the power sector. The seven state-owned power generation/distribution companies are to be privatised, beginning with the Cairo Electricity Co. (CEC). Saidi's role is also to speed up approval and facilitate execution of new independent power producing ventures (IPPs), which are being set up on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

In the early 1980s, Saidi was head of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority. At the time, Egypt was actively pursuing a nuclear power option. Since that option was abandoned, he has worked mainly as a consultant in Egypt and abroad. Until Oct. 9, 1999, Dr. Saidi was the non-executive Chairman of PGESCo, a power consultancy company owned by Bechtel, the Egyptian Electricity Authority (EEA) and private Egyptian partners. He was heavily involved in PGESCo's efforts to develop a local production of power plant equipment. He has been close to both Shell and Bechtel, which are 50-50 partners in the international power company InterGen - one of the co-sponsors of the Dec. 6-7, 1999 Mediterranean gas conference held in Cairo under the patronage of Minister Saidi and Petroleum Minister Fahmi.

Under supervision from Dr. Saidi and Economy Minister Dr. Yousef Boutros Ghali, the EEA in 2000 is to sell a 20% stake in Cairo Electricity Co. (CEC), one of EEA's seven power companies, is the largest utility in Egypt. EEA's other six power companies are to be partly privatised in the coming years. At the same time, Dr. Saidi is pursuing work initiated by his predecessor Abaza on linking Egypt's power grid to those of the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries and to the power grids of Europe.