Egypt Selects Consortium For First Infrastructure PPP
Egypt’s government has selected the winning bidder for the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) project, announced IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, which is lead adviser on the transaction. A consortium comprising of Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and Spain’s Aqualia and Aqualia Infrastructure was chosen to build and operate a wastewater facility at New Cairo. The plant will have a capacity of 250,000 cmd, and is intended to improve sanitation services for a city on the outskirts of the capital that has rapidly growing infrastructure demands. PPPs are often used in developed countries, and are particularly common on UK projects, but have only recently started to appear in MENA. The PPP structure allows Egypt to increase private sector participation in its infrastructure development.
Egypt is following an active public-private partnership program and “encouraging private sector participation in other projects by providing an appropriate legal and regulatory framework and a balanced risk allocation between the public and private sectors,” commented Rania Zayid, Head of the Public-Private Partnership Central Unit at Egypt’s Ministry of Finance. The Egyptian/Spanish consortium will build and operate the facility for 20 years before transferring it to the Egyptian government. Egypt has prioritized the development of infrastructure services in New Cairo, where the population is expected to jump from 500,000 to 3.8mn by 2029. The project was jointly funded by the Development Collaboration Partnership, a multi-donor facility established by IFC, and the UK’s Department for International Development.
Copyright MEES 2009.
