{"id":662393,"date":"2025-03-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2025\/03\/16\/govt-to-launch-tenders-for-desalination-plants-soon\/"},"modified":"2025-03-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T00:00:00","slug":"govt-to-launch-tenders-for-desalination-plants-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2025\/03\/16\/govt-to-launch-tenders-for-desalination-plants-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t to launch tenders for desalination plants soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon, friends, and welcome to a new workweek.<\/strong> Kicking off the week is news about the latest updates on Egypt\u2019s mega desalination projects, US continued strikes on Yemen, and Mercedes\u2019s latest attempt to regain its market share in China and Europe.<\/p>\n

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THE BIG STORY TODAY<\/p>\n

Gov\u2019t to launch tenders for desalination program soon: <\/strong>The Finance Ministry is expected to kick off the first phase of its planned desalination tenders \u2014 which involve four desalination plants with a capacity of 3 mn cbm\/day \u2014 in 2Q 2025, a senior government source told EnterpriseAM. The ministry is reportedly awaiting the approval of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to begin tendering the first phase, which could be expanded to 10 plants.<\/p>\n

Where things stand:<\/strong> Land has already been allocated for the projects, and several prequalified companies are ready to submit their proposals, our source said. <\/p>\n

We knew this was coming:<\/strong> The government over a year ago set forth a plan<\/a> to offer four desalination plants to the private sector in 1H 2024 as part of a broader plan to tender a total of 21 plants<\/a>. The tender for the first batch was delayed pending the completion of land allocation and financial revisions due to exchange rate fluctuations. <\/p>\n

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all eyes on Trump\u2019s strikes on Yemen's Houthis in the foreign press this morning:<\/strong> At least 31 people were killed and 101 others injured in the large-scale military strikes launched by the US on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Saturday, Yemeni health ministry spokesman Anees Al Asbahi said in a statement<\/a> on X, citing the latest statistics from the Houthi-run ministry. The strikes \u2014 which came in response<\/a> to the Iran-backed militant group\u2019s repetitive attacks on vessels in the Red Sea \u2014 might continue for weeks, a US official told Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AND- The AI race is heating up: <\/strong>Chinese tech company Baidu has launched two AI models, ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, as it seeks to gain ground in the AI race, according to a company statement<\/a>. The X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model, reportedly delivers performance comparable to DeepSeek R1 at half the price with \u201cenhanced capabilities in understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution.\u201d Meanwhile, ERNIE 4.5, Baidu's latest native multimodal foundation model, offers enhanced language skills, multimodal comprehension, and improved reasoning abilities, reportedly outperforming GPT-4.5 at just 1% of its price. The story got ink in Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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