Egypt Building Desalinization Plants

FILE: Illustrative representation of desalinization plant. Taken June 22, 2021

The government's water desalination programme aims to generate the production of 3.3 million cubic meters of desalinated water daily in the first phase, and eventually reach 8.8 million cubic meters daily.

There had been expressions of interest from more than 200 developers from at least 35 countries for the first phase, Soliman said.

"There are actually more that are going to flock in and join that group, and this is not a competition. We are creating a pipeline or a blueprint for that process, aiming to start production in 2025-26 and all the developers are working backwards from there," Soliman said.

The Sovereign Fund was set up in 2018 with a goal of attracting private investment in state-owned assets through partnerships and co-investments.

Egypt, which recently hosted the COP27 U.N. climate talks and is trying to boost investment in renewables, also aims to start production on its green hydrogen projects in 2025-2026, Ayman Soliman told the Reuters NEXT conference.