Egypt's president touches on planned electrical linkage projects with Greece, Italy

CAIRO – 19 August 2023: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi affirmed on Saturday that Egypt is making progress in terms of electrical interconnection with each of Greece and Italy.

In an inspection tour at the Military Academy in Cairo, Sisi affirmed that Egypt exports natural gas to countries in the north, which require it.

Egypt and Greece have been in the process of selecting an international consulting firm that would prepare a feasibility study for an intended electricity linkage between both countries.

The two countries can exchange electricity of around 2,000 megawatts, Egyptian Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker said in January.

Shaker highlighted the European interest in electricity linkage with Egypt, which has a surplus of renewable energy, and a strong distribution grid.

Egypt also plans to implement electricity linkage projects with many other countries, including Cyprus, Italy Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq.

Mitigating economic crisis

During his tour today, Sisi also affirmed that the government is working on a set of measures to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis.

Improving the economic situation contributes to better management of foreign policy, the president said, adding that Egypt works to provide hard currency and will continue securing the required commodities.

The Egyptian government is working on a set of measures in order to alleviate the repercussions of the economic crisis, Sisi said, underlining the state’s determination to reach permanent solutions to the crisis that causes commodities prices to hike amid the increase in the import bill.

He affirmed the need to tackle the issues related to local industrial and production requirements in a way that reduces the import bill.

The president said the state requires 18 tons of mazut per day in order to ensure that the power plants work with full efficiency.

Sisi noted that the state needs to pay up to $350 million monthly in order to obtain the required quantities mazut for power plants, which total more than half a million tons.

Concerning gasoline, Sisi said the state imports a large part of the gasoline required for cars with 10 million vehicles being driven nationwide.