TOP COMMERCE AIDE TO OPEN US PAVILION AT SAUDI ENVIRONMENT EXHIBIT
USIA
USIS Washington File
10 September 1997
TOP COMMERCE AIDE TO OPEN US PAVILION AT SAUDI ENVIRONMENT EXHIBIT
(Alonzo will visit Egypt, Israel on 'familiarization' tour) (920)
By George S. Hishmeh
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- The International Trade Administration is sending next
week a senior official to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel to underline
the Clinton Administration's commitment to the protection of the
environment in the Middle East and at the same time to promote the
export of prized U.S. environmental technology.
Anne L. Alonzo, deputy assistant secretary for Environmental
Technologies Exports, begins her first Mideast tour in Cairo on
September 14. Her three- country tour ends in Israel on September 25.
Her "orientation and familiarization" visit to the region was prompted
by the first Saudi-sponsored international exhibition and conference
for environmental technology for the Middle East, the so-called Saudi
EnviroTech '97, which will be held September 21-25 in Riyadh.
Saudi environmental concerns are indicated by the anticipated presence
at the trade show of the conference's patron, Prince Sultan Bin Abdul
Aziz, the second deputy prime minister and minister of defense and
chairman of the Ministerial Environmental Committee of Saudi Arabia.
Arab governments have also been invited to the conference.
Additionally, Saudi Arabia allows into the kingdom duty free all
environmental technology products. In fact, there are no trade
regulations covering the importation of environmental technologies.
Alonzo will address the conference and officiate at the ribbon-cutting
opening ceremony at the American Pavilion, the first U.S.
government-supported environmental show in the Middle East. About a
dozen American firms are participating in the trade show.
A recent World Bank survey, which has advocated comprehensive
environmental solutions for the Arab world, has estimated the
investment needs in this sector in the region at $100 billion over the
next 10 years.
This figure includes capital expenditures and costs of institutional
support, broken down thusly: water and waste management ($30 billion),
treatment of air pollution from industrial activities ($25 billion),
land and resources management ($25 billion), reduction of pollution
from leaded car fuel ($7 billion) and institutional support and
management ($13 billion).
A U.S. survey has calculated Saudi Arabia's environmental technology
market at $38 million in 1995, with an expected annual growth of 7-8
percent in both 1996 and 1997. Imports from the United States reached
$10 million in 1995 and the Saudi market for environmental equipment
and services, according to this survey, "is expected to grow over the
next few years due primarily to the government's increasing emphasis
on this sector."
The best prospects for U.S. exports in the Saudi environmental field
in 1997-98 were said to be in recycling systems and equipment, waste
water treatment systems, sewage systems, solid waste equipments and
systems, and air pollution control equipment, and monitoring devices.
Alonzo told the Washington File September 10 that "given the
importance of the administration's focus on the subject of
environmental technologies, the administration's focus on the Middle
East and the peace process and the different initiatives, we thought
it was timely that we go to the region."
She added, "We believe we are in a position to share (these
"world-class" technologies) -- and help export them to other
countries, especially in the emerging markets of countries that are
now starting to address pollution problems."
The objective of this trip, she elaborated, "is two-fold: to meet with
government and private sector officials to learn about what their
needs are and what their priorities are in terms of environmental
protection.... We can (then) bring that information back to the United
States and share it with our U.S. companies."
The International Trade Administration, which is part of the
Department of Commerce, publishes regularly what is called an "export
market plan" for countries that are identified as "a priority market
for environmental technologies."
Alonzo said she plans to publish "in the next few months" a similar
survey on Egypt after she meets there with government officials, and
representatives of the Egyptian private sector and American firms in
Cairo and Alexandria.
This country survey, she explained, is regularly distributed to any
U.S. company in the field, anywhere between 40 to 60 thousand firms,
at no charge in order to save these companies from "reinventing the
wheel."
Her focus in Egypt will be on pollution and water treatment issues and
in Israel on some 400 hazardous waste sites which the Israelis want to
reclaim.
On her return to the United States, she said she will also work
through the inter-governmental process to see "whether there are
programs or activities that we can put into place to be better help,
in terms of our goals of sustainable development."
Alonzo, who has led several missions of this nature to countries in
Asia and Latin America, promised that she wants the Middle East to
know that "this sector can be very exciting." She pointed out that the
global market in environmental technologies is estimated at present to
be about $420 billion and rising to about $600 billion in the year
2,010.
Alonzo is the second high-ranking Department of Commerce official to
visit the Middle East this month. Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Commerce Judith Barnett also led a trade mission this month to Israel,
Tunisia and Morocco.
Secretary of Commerce William Daley is expected to travel to Qatar in
November when he and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are
scheduled to open the Doha Economic Summit, the fourth Middle
East-North African economic conference.