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·       “Working together on the energy of the future”

Berlin – The Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Dii, the industry initiative set up to realise the Desertec vision, have signalled their intention to work together more closely in future. Ghorfa Secretary General Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi and Paul van Son, Dii CEO, signed an agreement in Berlin laying the foundation stone for future cooperation between the two organisations. Dii and Ghorfa will collaborate to identify the major opportunities presented by renewable energies in the Arab states and help develop the potential of these forward-looking technologies.

Ghorfa Secretary General Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi was delighted with the newly signed memorandum of understanding: “Nearly all Arab governments from Abu Dhabi to Morocco have meanwhile launched ambitious pilot projects for developing regenerative power production. Be it Masdar City (Abu Dhabi), Kuraymat (Egypt) or Desertec: everywhere German technology and know-how are on board.”

Paul van Son, Dii CEO, emphasised: “We can only master the challenges of the future together in close partnership with the countries of the MENA region. To achieve our initiative’s goal – a genuine win-win situation for EUMENA – we need this close cooperation with our Arab partners. We are glad that for this purpose we can now count on the support of such a strong and highly respect institution as Ghorfa.”

On 14 and 15 October 2010, high-ranking participants at the first German-Arab Energy Forum in Berlin had highlighted the particular benefits of cooperating on renewable energies. S. E. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League, emphasised that German-Arab cooperation in the area of renewable energies offered great opportunities. Parliamentary State Secretary Peter Hintze made clear that the German Federal Government considered Desertec “very important”, which is why the initiative had been included in the Federal Government’s energy concept. Viktor Elbling from the Federal Foreign Office underlined the importance of renewable energies: “Europe and the Arab world are natural energy partners. But we have to re-tailor our energy policy. That requires nothing less than an energy revolution on both the supply and demand side.”

Many MENA countries are currently reviewing the scope for investment by foreign partners as part of their plans to expand renewable energies. This tallies with the intentions of the Desertec initiative, which is striving for collaboration between the MENA countries and Europe as equal partners.

The Desertec vision aims to help achieve a situation where renewable energies supply not only the Middle East and North Africa but also Europe with power from desert regions. Cooperation will intensify economic ties as a whole, e.g. through projects for desalination of sea water which create the basis for increasing agricultural production, and through knowledge transfer. Cross-continental collaboration in the field of energy will also contribute to reducing the potential for political and economic conflict, thus securing peace.

With Ghorfa’s support, Dii will in future enter into more intensive dialogue with all the relevant state and private decision makers in the MENA region. It plans to substantially expand the Dii group of Associated Partners in the MENA region, partly through joint events on all issues involving utilisation of renewable energies on an industrial scale. In addition, Dii’s management stated its great interest in closer cooperation with the Arab League, a representative of which was present in Munich at the official inauguration event for the Dii in July 2009.

Background

The Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, based in Berlin, has been successfully working to promote economic relations between Germany and the Arab world for over 30 years. It is the sole legitimate representative of the Arab chambers of commerce and industry in Germany and is fully integrated in the latter’s global organisation. With this network, Ghorfa supports its members in developing and expanding their business activities in the Arab market and in Germany.

The Dii is an international initiative established in July 2009 as the “Desertec Industrial Initiative”. Dii GmbH was founded under German law on 30 October 2009.  The Dii’s objective is the realisation of the Desertec vision, whose long-term goal is to satisfy both a substantial part of the energy needs of the producer countries and around 15% of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.