Dabaa contracts will be signed before the year is out, says Shaker

Will we or won’t we sign the Dabaa nuke contracts this year? Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker announced yesterday that Egypt and Russia will ink the agreement for the USD 30 bn Dabaa nuclear power plant before the end of 2017, Al Ahram reports. Shaker’s announcement is the latest in a string of mismatched reports and statements about the signing date. Just last week, high-level sources from the ministry claimed the Council of State had not completed its review of the project’s four contracts, making it unlikely they would be signed this year. Other sources alleged a week earlier that the Council had in fact reviewed and sent the contracts over to Ittihadiya, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to attend the signing ceremony in Egypt this month.