CAIRO, June 6 (Xinhua) -- An agreement to build a wind power plant in Upper Egypt's Sohag province was signed on Tuesday between Egypt's Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) clean energy firm Masdar.
Under the deal, which is worth over 10 billion U.S. dollars, the wind power plant is planned to have a production capacity of 10 gigawatts, said the Egyptian cabinet in a statement.
Mohamed Shaker, Egypt's minister of electricity and renewable energy, said at the signing ceremony that "the project demonstrates the ability of the renewable energy sector in Egypt to attract foreign direct investment."
For his part, Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology, described the wind power plant as a strategic project and one of the largest projects in this field in Africa and the world.
The wind power plant, upon completion, will produce annually 47,790 gigawatt-hours of clean energy, reducing carbon dioxide emission in Egypt by about 9 percent and saving the country around 5 billion dollars in the annual cost of natural gas consumption.
"This project is an extension of the historical relations between Egypt and the UAE and it reflects the bonds of fruitful and constructive cooperation between the two countries," said Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during the signing ceremony. ■