Chairman of Board of Directors of Arab Union of Electricity: Profound Reforms Embarked to Restore Union's Position Among Leading Global Organizations

Doha, March 20 (QNA) - HE Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Union of Electricity and General Director of the National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water in the Kingdom of Morocco Eng. Abdel Rahim Al Hafidi affirmed that the Union has embarked on profound reforms to restore its position among the leading global organizations. Al Hafidi said, in a speech during the opening session of the 7th General Conference of the Arab Union of Electricity, which was held in Doha on Sunday, that the Union has made important strides during the last three years, by modernizing its structures, mechanisms and organization, and has also adopted an effective system of governance, in addition to reorienting its tasks and objectives. He believed that these achievements are a first step in implementing what has been programmed in the past three years, despite the difficult circumstances of the Coronavirus pandemic, which greatly affected the workflow, and imposed the necessity for the Union to resort to smart mechanisms to adapt to this situation and ensure the continuity of its work. He added that preparations are being made today for the second station to complete the reform and development workshops by developing a new strategic plan for the Union. It will clarify the path that it will take in the medium and long term. It is a complementary step to the process of restructuring the union, in turn, it contributes to enabling it to adopt effective ways to expand its activities. Thus, the necessary foundations for setting up a new development model for the Union have been laid. It will be capable of facing the challenges posed by the profound changes in the electricity sector at the international and Arab levels. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Union of Electricity considered the presence of senior officials in the public and private sectors of energy and electricity in Arab countries and other friendly and brotherly countries, Arab and international experts and speakers and officials of manufacturers of electrical equipment, as evidence of the success of the 7th General Conference of the Arab Union of Electricity, which is of great importance and constitutes an important station to evoke the most important stages of reform and recall the outcome of what has been done to advance the Union in recent years. He explained that the Conference will discuss the axes emanating from the strategic directions brought about by the new vision of the restructuring of the Union, which is of interest to decision makers and workers in the field of electric power. In this regard, he pointed out to the decision taken by the members of the Union since December 2018, to develop a new strategic vision for the medium and long term, as well as adopting a new model to develop its mechanisms, indicating that this new vision will inevitably enable it to face the immediate and future challenges imposed by the profound changes taking place in the electricity sector at the international and regional levels. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Union of Electricity said the aforementioned vision will also help contribute to framing the work of Arab companies so that its work and efforts are in the field of continuous development in the electric power sector. He affirmed that the electricity sector is witnessing profound transformations at the global level in general and the Arab world in particular, in light of the rapid booms that the world is witnessing at the level of liberalization, openness of the electricity market and transforming the sector from a system that partially depends on government support to a sector that operates on commercial bases that enable it to be self-reliant, which guarantees stability and sustainability. The sector is also witnessing rapid and important developments and transformations at the level of new technologies, among them are the qualitative leaps in electric transport, the increasing integration of digital technologies into electrical systems, including smart grids, as well as the pivotal role that will be played by alternative energies, including hydrogen. He stressed that the Arab Union of Electricity, in view of these developments, must enhance its role and strengthen its presence at the global level similar to major international organizations and to raise its level to work in more professional ways. He expressed his hope that the recommendations that will be issued at the conclusion of the conference will live up to the great responsibility placed on everyone's shoulders in order to provide electricity to all Arab citizens at the lowest cost and high quality. (QNA)