More than 130 organizations from over 30 countries attended the GE Gas Power Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) Partnership Summit 2020. The event brings together select GE suppliers every year to collectively identify the opportunities and address the challenges to engineering and delivering cleaner, more accessible energy that people depend on across MENASA and beyond.

The annual summit was organized as a virtual forum for the very first time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and comprised of broadcasts, online trainings, an interactive question and answer session, as well as individual, one-on-one supplier meetings. The topics discussed included: safety and compliance; regional market dynamics; the role of gas in the evolving energy landscape; supply chain and sourcing; operations and execution excellence; regional product services; and engineering partnerships and synergy.

“Our suppliers are critical partners in helping us to realize GE’s vision and purpose of building a world that works better for everyone,” said Joseph Anis, President and CEO of GE Gas Power, Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. “The Partnership Summit underlines our commitment to develop a robust regional supply chain to support ongoing manufacturing, services, repairs, construction and research initiatives and help meet national development goals to drive economic diversification and job creation.”

The Summit also included a ‘Key Suppliers’ awards ceremony to recognize the achievements of organizations that delivered exceptional outcomes in the areas of Safety, Quality, Delivery, Competitiveness and Culture. From the UAE, Descon Engineering FZE was recognized in the ‘Competitiveness’ category for managing pricing and working capital for increased productivity.

GE has supported the development of the region’s energy infrastructure for over 80 years. Today, GE-built technologies are installed at up to 1,500 power generation sites across MENASA and the company has a significant legacy of supporting the development of indigenous entrepreneurship and the regional supply chain. GE’s investments in the UAE include a service center in Jebel Ali, which provides state-of-the-art maintenance, testing and repair solutions for generators and gas turbines and has served customers from more than 25 countries.