Damascus-SANA
With the participation of researchers from various scientific research bodies and representatives of the public and private sectors, the Supreme Commission for Scientific Research, in cooperation with the General Corporation for the Cement and Building Materials Industry, organized a workshop entitled “National Priorities for Scientific Research and Technical Development for the Cement Industry” at the Al-Assad National Library in Damascus.
The participants in the workshop reviewed the reality of the cement industry in Syria, the challenges and risks it faces under the current circumstances, the role of the relevant national authorities, the legislative environment in this sector, the necessities of using renewable energies, the specific consumption of energy in the cement industry, the reality of production, cost and marketing, in addition to discussing the most prominent proposals and the required research and development axes. .
In his speech, Minister of Industry Ziad Sabbagh said that the ministry had drawn up a strategy based on investing in local resources, partnership between the public and private sectors, and securing the requirements for the continuation of the companies’ work, in addition to adopting the principle of partnership with the national private sector and companies of friendly countries to rehabilitate suspended and destroyed companies and to establish a network of small and medium projects They are geographically and sectorally distributed in line with the relative advantages in each governorate, leading to the establishment of industrial clusters.
Minister Sabbagh pointed out that the local market need of cement amounts to between 15 and 20 million tons annually, and that it currently produces only about 4 million tons in both the private and public sectors, which prompted us to raise the production capacities of the existing public sector plants to reach 6 million tons of cement. Annually by searching for a strategic partner to rehabilitate the public cement companies affected by the war, add new production lines in the operating companies, and establish industrial projects for cement production and allocate them to sites by the Geology Foundation.
Dr. Majd al-Jamali, Director General of the Supreme Commission for Scientific Research, expressed his hope that the workshop would constitute an added value for the important cement industry in the reconstruction phase and how to increase production capacities, enhance and improve the type of products and reduce the high cost because this industry is energy-intensive and expensive, noting that the authority will send final proposals. To universities to carry out scientific research according to the priorities required by the current reality and its needs.
In turn, Eng. Al-Muthanna Al-Sarhani, Director General of the General Organization for Cement and Building Materials, pointed out that the proposed scientific research can be used well by the General Cement Corporation if the proposals are practical and applicable to the reality of the corporation's companies, stressing that the Corporation is interested in these studies and is ready to support them by all available means. .
Dr. Mahmoud Ismail from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Damascus University and a researcher in the Commission presented a detailed report on the national priorities for scientific research and technological development for the cement industry.
Dr. Ismail concluded his report with a set of general proposals for the development of the cement sector, most notably the creation of a body specialized in cement research that works on developing a research strategy for the cement industry, creating a modern laboratory for cement technology studies and research equipped with modern equipment and specialized cadres, and establishing research and development units in cement factories that work to communicate with researchers and put forward Direct problems and attract researchers and experts in the field of cement industry and pay attention to industrial research aimed at securing spare parts of local production and breaking the economic blockade.
Helena El Hindi and Ahmed Suleiman
