ALKHOBAR, 16 March 2005 — The British Trade Office in cooperation with the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce & Industry (EPCCI) is inviting all interested parties to attend an Environment & Water Seminar at Al-Jazeera Hall in the chamber of commerce headquarters on Saturday, March 19.

Registration will take place from 8 a.m. with the seminar starting at 8:30. To reserve a seat at the seminar contact Riad Saab, Trade & Investment Officer at the British Trade Office.

Representatives of 17 companies have come out from the UK to participate in the event, the first major UK trade event in the Kingdom in 2005. The trade delegation has already presented similar seminars in Riyadh and Jeddah, with Alkhobar the final stop on their Saudi tour. The activities of the companies represented in the trade delegation span a wide variety of interests in the environmental services and wastewater management sectors.

For example, ACWA Services designs and constructs water and wastewater treatment plants. Clearwater Ltd. manufactures low-cost solid-state silver-copper ionization systems for water treatment. Shanks Chemical Services is specialized in hazardous waste management and disposal. CD Brown International Services is involved in consultancy and contracting services for horticultural and environmental wastes, including waste remediation and recycling. MHP Environmental Technologies International offers a waste processing and recycling technology, which is an environmental and economical alternative to either the incineration or land filling of waste. The technology transforms waste into a non-toxic building material capable of wide application. The company aims to offer the technology under a build, operate and transfer program (BOT). Some of the 17 companies in the trade delegation are directly making their technologies or services available but others are looking for partners or representatives.

“British companies are leaders in the environmental and water technologies sectors and Saudi companies are interested in both of these sectors, in part due to directives from the Ministry of Water and Electricity and the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment,” said Saab. “More than 150 attendees came out to the Riyadh seminar. This was quite a good attendance. These attendees were not only from Saudi water and environmental firms but also from government agencies, the oil and gas sector, petrochemical industries and engineering and consulting firms.”