18 June 2015
RIYADH: Ziad bin Mohammed Al-Shiha, CEO of Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and Ibrahim bin Abdulrahman Alomar, CEO of The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The five-year agreement envisages that Bahri will transfer all the equipment, tools, spare parts and products imported from outside by SEC. This is aimed at supporting strategic resettlement of projects for electrical industries and exchange of experiences between the two sides to provide appropriate work environment.

This, in turn, is expected to contribute to the successful implementation of government plans to promote domestic industries in light of the overall economic boom in the Kingdom at all levels in recent years.

According to the MoU, which was signed at SEC headquarters, a joint working group comprising a number of specialists and experts from the two companies will be formed to study the ever strengthening and organizing cooperation between them and to put in plans needed to implement the strategies of SEC and Bahri in the resettlement of electrical industries.

Integrated logistics services for the marine, land and air transportation will be provided as stipulated in the MoU. SEC will nominate Bahri to offer its services to those who deal with suppliers and contractors from internally and externally in accordance with the high reliability of Bahri.

SEC revealed in May its strategy to localize electrical industries in the Kingdom through three major initiatives based on stimulating local contractors and manufacturers, and highlight investment opportunities in the promotion of spare parts and materials industries locally.

Bahri represents the vital and important role in contributing to the growth of Saudi shipping industry and linking it to many important global markets with its fleet of ships and giant tankers that move across the seas of the world, as well as ownership of the network of multiple branches and subsidiaries and many agents around the world.

This, in turn, makes it easy to link the Saudi economy with the most important economies and global markets through several strategic business sectors represented in oil transport, gas and marine, chemicals transport, general cargo, bulk cargo transport and ship management.

The company indicated that identifying investment opportunities in the localization of materials and marketing industry, and presenting these sectors to the investors will encourage the establishment of local factories to import global technical experiments.

It will also help attract and train qualified nationals, and raise the local content rate among local manufacturers by using local materials and products (raw) thus leading to the establishment of research centers to transfer and develop technology.

© Arab News 2015