The Energy Committee of the National Democratic Party (NDP) is to present a working paper for the Policies Committee of the NDP analyzing means to get out of the current economic crisis which struck since last September and to avoid the implications of the post-crisis which is expected to end in 2011-2012.

“The paper will be submitted during the current month and it suggests the exploitation of the economic crisis in favor of a country, through a positive way based on an intensive and multi-axes program,” a member of the Energy Committee in the NDP said.

The member, requested to keep his identity anonymous, pointed out that the whole world is now preparing for the after crisis.

“The paper is based on energy as the engine for any economic activity, noting that the Committee had presented a similar paper at the end of last year during the annual conference of the NDP, which included mechanisms and priorities of work with the aim of developing, securing and satisfying the energy needs in Egypt,” he explained.

He added that the most important features of the working paper are the following; provide energy to the industrial areas, deliver gas to households, amend the deals of exporting gas to the foreign countries, noting that Egypt is a state of limited energy resources and therefore, the country must deal with its resources in a positive way. Moreover, a list of main concerns were set such as priorities of domestic consumption of energy and security of strategic reserves and increase of oil and gas production through the involvement of the private sector and attraction of foreign investment to liberalize the market gradually in order to reduce the subsidiary for the oil sector. It is worth mentioning that the budget allocated for energy subsidies is about 76 billion pounds.

Besides, the second aim of presenting this paper is to maintain growth rates, which amounted to 7 percent in 2006, a figure reflecting Egypt’s need for energy.