Nuclear power plants to meet 25% annual growth in electricity demand in the Middle East between 2010-15: Deloitte
In the latest Deloitte periodical publication, ‘Middle East Point of View’ which hosts independent analysis and views from experts, an article titled ‘Heavy Fuel’, highlights the need to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East to satisfy the growth in electricity demand that is projected at 25% per annum between 2010 and 2015. It further indicates that, although the increase will be primarily met with natural gas, the availability of such gas at its current, heavily subsidized prices is uncertain.
“The nuclear momentum has started across the region. Of the 60 countries around the world that have expressed an interest in, or are actively planning to introduce nuclear power, almost every country in the Middle East is represented,” Kenneth McKellar, partner and Middle East Energy and Resources Industry leader at Deloitte in the Middle East, said.
In addition to this article, the Deloitte Point of View magazine’s independent authors’ views ranged from the banking sector in the UAE, data analytics, and talent management challenges in the post financial crisis era.
Through his editorial ‘Clearly, very unclear – the banking industry in the UAE’, Wissam Moukahal, partner and UAE Financial Services Industry leader at Deloitte, wrote that “challenges facing the UAE banking sector are expected to continue for the coming 18 to 24 months, with property markets in all seven emirates, especially Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, continuing to show a negative trend in prices and yields generated from rentals. Another factor that will impact the banking sector is the number of privately owned companies, including family owned conglomerates that will eventually engage in restructuring their original loans and advance with longer tenures and possibly cheaper rates.”
“Forty one of respondents from a recent Deloitte survey titled Talent Edge 2020 identified competing for talent globally as the most pressing talent issue, while 38% listed leadership development and succession planning as their most critical HR challenge. Retaining talent was seen as the topmost challenge for 37% of the survey’s respondents,” Rym El Zein Dimashkieh, senior manager, Human Resources, at Deloitte in the Middle East explained through her article ‘qn employer’s nightmare – finding the right talent’.
“As companies in the Middle East compete more than ever for global talent, there is more of a need for a compressive strategy with a holistic approach for businesses to successfully and confidently align their most important objectives. Executives would accordingly need to take their talent strategy to a new level,” she added.
“Advances in information technology have dramatically magnified both the practical availability and business necessity of data and analytics tools and methods. As a result, novel applications of analytics are taking root at an impressive clip. The important thing, however, is to remember that the core ideas and methods of modern analytics are rooted in fundamental statistics and optimization ideas that have been in wide use for decades,” in their editorial titled ‘Beyond the numbers – analytics as a strategic capability’, James Guszcza, senior manager at Deloitte Consulting LLP and John Lucker, Advance Analytics and Modeling Global Human Capital leader for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), said.