—————————————
Management at Qalaa Holdings (formerly Citadel Capital) and senior staff from five of the company’s subsidiaries gathered at the Green Investment Opportunities Conference held on 15-17 June to discuss how industry can work not just to mitigate its impact on the environment, but to reduce emissions going forward
Senior staff from Qalaa Holdings (CCAP.CA on the Egyptian Exchange; formerly known as Citadel Capital), and its subsidiaries joined other private sector leaders for the inaugural Green Investment Opportunities Conference, a national gathering on the environment and the economy. The conference took place in El-Gouna, on Egypt’s pristine Red Sea coast, under the auspices of the Ministry of State for the Environment.
Qalaa Holdings, an African leader in infrastructure and investment with subsidiaries in energy, cement, agrifoods, transportation and mining, is a proud sponsor of the event.
The conference is establishing a framework by which ideas on sustainable and green development can be realized. Participants discussed scientific methods of implementing a green economy and explored the practical strides taken by the private sector (and Qalaa Holdings specifically) to combat climate change through green construction, sustainable transport, renewable energy, waste recycling, and alternative fuels. The conference investigated how endeavors in these fields will help grow the economy, develop the community, and protect the environment by drawing from the pool of experience available across Egypt and the Arab world.
“Economic growth, job creation and a healthier environment are by no means mutually exclusive,” said Ahmed El-Sharkawy, a Managing Director at Qalaa Holdings. “This means that Qalaa Holdings not only designs industrial and infrastructure projects to have as little impact on the environment as possible, but also actively looks for opportunities to create profit-making ventures that are pro-environment.
“Take, for example, the Egyptian Refining Company. It is not just a US$ 3.7 billion refinery that will create jobs and sharply reduce our nation’s reliance on diesel imports: It will also slash the country’s present-day sulfur emissions by nearly a thirdand reduce our carbon footprint by producing diesel to Euro-V specifications, the cleanest-burning diesel fuel in the world,” El-Sharkawy added.
In addition to El-Sharkawy, Qalaa’s participants at the gathering include Gen. Maged Farag, the Chairman of the National Company for Multimodal Transport (NMT), a Qalaa subsidiary in the transport industry; NMT operates river transport vessels and ports along the Nile River in Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan. Gen. Farag was joined at the conference by senior staff from Glass Rock (a producer of green insulating materials) and GlassWorks (whose product portfolio includes coated and reflective float glass). Also joining the Qalaa executives was Ahmed Gaber, Chairman of Tawazon, a subsidiary of Qalaa operating in the energy segment; Tawazon is a leading solid-waste management company and producer of refuse-derived fuels.
Speaking at the opening day of the conference, Mohamed Mashhoor, Managing Director of Nile Cargo (a Qalaa Holdings subsidiary), discussed the economic and environmental advantages of river transportation projects. Other Qalaa speakers included Hisham Wagdy, Managing Director of TAQA Power (a subsidiary of TAQA Arabia, Egypt’s leading independent energy distribution company), who discussed renewable energy sources and alternative fuels as a key component of Egypt’s energy and environmental security policies.
The inaugural day of the conference was concluded by Amr Al Samak, head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), who thanked Qalaa Holdings for its efforts in supporting and sponsoring the conference and furthering the cause of environmental investments in Egypt.
