State Minister for Military Production Mohamed El-Assar witnessed Saturday the inking ceremony of a memorandum of understanding with the Swiss TCG company for waste-to-energy (WtE) cooperation.

The deal was signed between the National Organization for Military Production (NOMP) and the Swiss company at the ministry's headquarters in the presence of Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Sharawy and Minister of Environment Yassmin Fouad.

This move comes in light of the state's interest in developing an advanced waste management system to improve environmental, health and living conditions of Egyptian citizens and achieve economic returns, said a statement released by the Military Production Ministry.

It seeks to establish cooperation between the ministry and the Swiss company to build waste-to-energy plants that work for processing waste to generate any form of energy.

It also aims to transfer WtE state-of-the-art technologies to Egypt and increase the local manufacturing component in this industry for the sake of having added value, less imports and saving foreign currency, the statement added.

Fouad said that her ministry has a clear-cut plan for executing a national waste management program in cooperation with the military production and local development ministries and the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), asserting her confidence in the ability of the military production companies to capitalize on Swiss recycling technology.

Meanwhile, TCG CEO Robert I Hargitai underscored his company’s interest in cooperating with the Ministry of Military Production, given the technological, manufacturing, research and technical capabilities it boasts as well as the large infrastructure and skilled workforce of the ministry's affiliated companies.