Building A Community
Osama Bishai, CEO of Orascom Construction, reveals how the company has supported the community in Egypt over the last year, as well as continuing to grow its portfolio.
What are the key challenges facing the Egyptian construction industry in 2021 and how are you positioning Orascom Construction to maintain and grow your market share?
The main challenge is the speed of recovery from last year’s nationwide slowdown. We have directed our efforts to tackling the negative impact. We are mainly focusing on maintaining our project pipeline and backlog, as well as project controls, cost optimization and cash flow.
You recently announced, along with Siemens Mobility and Arab Contractors, the signing of an MOU with the National Authority for Tunnels to design, install, and commission Egypt’s first highspeed rail system. How significant is this project to your portfolio?
This project will be added to Orascom Construction’s vast portfolio of high-profile transportation projects, including The Cairo Monorail—the world’s longest monorail system, light rail, railway and metros. We are proud to be a key player in the deep-rooted transformation of the transportation landscape in Egypt, impacting and enhancing the overall quality of life.
COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on businesses in 2020. How has Orascom Construction weathered the storm and how optimistic are you that 2021 will see brighter days?
The safety and well-being of our people and communities have always been our top priority, and we took several immediate steps to ensure precautionary measures at our sites and offices in accordance with the highest standards.
A taskforce was immediately established to assess the impact of and create a proactive plan to tackle COVID-19. This task force continuously evaluates developments and adapts to them, with health and safety as the top priority. The impact related to COVID-19 was minimal in Q1 2020 and is expected to be reflected in Q2 2020 results.
The environment challenges and the impact of COVID-19 has kept us resilient, vigilant and adaptive to changes. This, no doubt, gives us hope for a bright future.
Orascom Construction plays an important social role in supporting Egypt’s citizens. How do you, as CEO, balance the demands of shareholders with the local community?
We believe that shareholders’ interest and community support should go hand in hand. While shareholder’s interest and success is our north star, guiding us towards growth and prosperity, we know that success is also tied to our people and to the communities we impact.
Our strong record in corporate citizenship can be seen in our ongoing role in maintaining a sustainable community through recent efforts to combat COVID-19, as well as our solid and established engagement in developing social healthcare in rural areas throughout Egypt where basic healthcare needs are unmet. Meanwhile, our competitive edge in Egypt’s market alongside our business development efforts have allowed us to secure a sizable inflow of high-quality projects and maintain a healthy project pipeline.
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