GOIC Submits Paper on ‘Industrial Technical Support Program’ at MOWE Forum
29 May 2011

Riyadh: Secretary General of the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), Abdulaziz bin Hamad Al-Aqeel, submitted a working paper on GOIC’s role in the field of energy conservation by utilizing “GOIC’s Industrial Technical Support Program" at “The efficiency of electricity Forum in Riyadh” on Sunday. The forum is being organized by the Ministry of Water and Electricity (MOWE) in Saudi Arabia at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center- RICEC and will run until May 31.

In his working paper, Al-Aqeel drew attention to the fact that GOIC realizes the importance of supporting small and medium industries in facing challenges and competition in the global market with minimal impact on the environment. Under the ‘Industrial Technical Support Program”, which was established in 2001, GOIC provides a low-cost comprehensive industrial assessments for small and medium-sized industries. He noted that the results of the recent assessments conducted by the organization for a number of plants and factories in some GCC countries have shown potential reduction in operating costs for small and medium industries by more than $6 million for about forty factories that benefited from the technical assessment program.

Listing the benefits of the program, the Secretary General said: “The program has resulted in reduction in power consumption, reduced waste, increased productivity, reduced pollution, improved financial performance, and increased satisfaction of employers and workers.”

Al-Aqeel also pointed out the significant development taking place in the downstream industries sector in the GCC countries in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular. He said that during the past ten years, the number of operating plants in the GCC countries doubled, from 7490 plants in 2000 to 13,035 plants in 2010. During the same period, the volume of investments doubled by more than two and a half times, from US$86.6 billion to US$219.5 billion.

He said the number of operating plants in Saudi Arabia has increased by 50 per cent, from 3118 plants in 2000 to 4663 plants in 2010, and accounted for nearly 36 per cent of the total number of plants in the GCC, while the volume of investments in this sector increased by 91.5 per cent, from about US$59 billion in 2000 to about US$113 billion in 2010, accounting for 51.5 per cent of the total industrial investments in the GCC countries.

In the electric power field, consumption in the Kingdom increased from approximately 114.2 million megawatt/hour in 2000 to nearly 193.5 million megawatt/ hour in 2009, an increase of 69.5 per cent during this period, and an annual growth rate of 6 per cent.

Al-Aqeel reiterated that this great development in a number of plants, industrial investments and energy consumption has led to dramatically increase the diversity in local industrial products, thus increasing their contribution to the GDP of the non-oil sectors.

In completion of the GOIC preparatory steps to start studying non-oil export strategy of the GCC States, Al-Aqeel announced that the Organization has prepared a draft agreement for preparing the study, which awaits approval by the GCC.