By Brian Jules Campued
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expressed the Philippines’ intention to establish a partnership with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) as the government sees the potential use of nuclear energy for power generation and add it into the country’s energy sources.
Marcos made the pronouncement during a meeting with ENEC chairman and chief executive officer Mohammed Al Hammadi in Malacañang on Monday.
“I’m glad that we had this chance…for you to visit us. Because this is a subject that we have been talking about for a long time. And especially after the pandemic, I’m trying to figure out what are the needs of the government,” the President told Al Hammadi.
“And this [has] become a very high priority topic. I hope we can find ways to help each other in this,” he added.
ENEC is a state-owned firm responsible for the deployment, ownership, and operation of nuclear energy plants in the United Arab Emirates. Functioning also as the investment arm of the government in Abu Dhabi, the corporation invests in the nuclear sector both domestically and internationally.
According to Special Envoy to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Kathryna Yu-Pimentel, Al Hammadi paid a courtesy call to Marcos after First Lady Liza Marcos led a Philippine delegation—consisting of Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, Special Envoy to China for Trade, Investments, and Tourism Benito Techico, Maharlika Investment Corporation president Rafael Consing Jr., Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso Ver, and Pimentel—in a meeting with ENEC officials last June 27 to 29 in the UAE.
“The delegation’s visit in the country is a result of our three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates with First Lady Liza Marcos last June. During this trip, we had productive meetings with ENEC, as well as officials from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Abu Dhabi government,” Pimentel said in a social media post.
During the said meeting, Cojuangco and Al Hammadi said they had already sent an invitation to the Chief Executive to join the International Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy – 2024 Objectives at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
According to the Presidential Communications Office, the International Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy calls for the tripling of global nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
The First Lady, for her part, expressed her commitment to discuss the invitation with the President, adding that the Department of Foreign Affairs is already consolidating inputs from concerned agencies regarding the country’s possible participation. – iro