Cairo – Fourteen Arab States signed on Thursday a memorandum of accord to establish a joint Arab electricity market, on the sidelines of the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity.

The Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity convened in its 12th session at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, under chairmanship of the State of Kuwait and with participation of the Arab electricity and energy ministries.

Addressing the meeting, Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih stressed the importance of enhancing the Arab joint action on electrical energy, while lauding the achievements made by the council, mainly the Arab electricity linkage and the establishment of the Arab Common Electricity Market.

He added that the electricity linkage project with Egypt would greatly support the joint Arab power market, which he hoped would be linked in the future with European and African power networks.

He also described Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 as an approach to achieve the Kingdom’s developmental and economic goals, pointing out that the country was seeking to invest in a variety of energy sources for the production of electricity.

Falih also noted that the Kingdom was an important hub for industries and services in the field of electricity.

Describing Thursday’s meeting as a proof of the historic and strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the minister stressed the Saudi leadership’s keenness on bolstering bilateral cooperation in different economic and industrial fields.

The MOU was signed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Union of the Comoros, Kuwait, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Yemen.

Energy ministers of Arab states or assigned representatives signed the document.