The Governor of “Tahlia” to “Al-Eqtisadiah”: A water transport and technology company will be offered for subscription

It is expected that part of the government-owned water transmission and technology company will be offered for public subscription during the coming stages, after completing the studies, taking the necessary approvals, and determining the most appropriate option from the percentage of the offering by the supervisory committee for the privatization of the environment, water, and agriculture sector, which represents the current owner of the company.Eng. Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Abdulkarim, Governor of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Water Transport and Technology Company, which was established last November, told Al-Eqtisadiah that the company will work to achieve the main purpose of its establishment to reach the goals of the national strategy. For water.Al-Abdulkarim explained, “In the current stage, the company will work to achieve the main purpose of its establishment and reach the goals of the National Water Strategy by contributing to the safe supply of water, improving efficiency and reducing costs. It will also, through partners in the water sector, pump more investments in this vital sector to meet The increasing needs and the involvement of the private sector in financing and operating these projects. Therefore, offering part of the company for public subscription is one of the following stages after obtaining the necessary approvals.He added that the government fully owns a water transportation and technology company according to Cabinet Decision No. (32) and is represented by the Supervisory Committee for Privatization of the Environment, Water and Agriculture Sector headed by the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and the company operates according to the directions of the Supervisory Committee, which will determine the most appropriate option from the percentage of the offering at a time.On the possibility of knowing the establishment of a production company similar to the company for water transport and technology, which was recently established, the governor explained that the cabinet approved the model for allocating the Saline Water Desalination Corporation, by separating production assets from transportation, so the work will be phased by offering production assets for the participation of the sector Special according to the most suitable option for each production group.​
And that this is what happened during the last period, as the necessary arrangements have been made under the supervision of the Supervisory Committee for Privatization of the Water Sector to offer and participate in the private sector for the desalination and electric power plant in Ras Al-Khair, and seven companies and alliances have been qualified, which will compete for entry into this partnership, as will follow. The rest of the foundation’s asset groups, respectively, according to readiness for allocation.With regard to the size of the projects that are currently being implemented, and the corporation aims to allocate them at a later stage through the involvement of the private sector, Al-Abdulkarim stated that the capital value of the projects that the corporation is currently implementing amounts to about 40 billion riyals, and includes construction and replacement projects for some systems Transportation and construction and replacement projects for desalination plants, which are projects for which the value engineering methodology and best practices in project management and implementation have been applied so that desalinated water production plants are linked with the water transmission system to deliver the necessary quantities to the authorities responsible for the distribution activity in the beneficiary areas and cities, according to technical specifications High and attractive economic return.He noted that these megaprojects, which are currently being implemented, were not included in the institution’s current plans to launch them to the private sector in 2021, but will be part of the subsequent privatization packages for the coming years.