Dr. Heike Harmgart is the Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern
Mediterranean (SEMED) region at the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD).
Based in Cairo, Dr. Harmgart is responsible for the formulation and delivery of EBRD’s
strategy and business plan for the SEMED region including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco,
Lebanon and Palestine. Dr. Harmgart manages a team of 150 staff with an annual
business volume of over €2 billion.
A German national, Dr. Harmgart joined the EBRD in 2006 as an economist. In 2013,
she became EBRD’s first Head of Office in Jordan, based in Amman. She was
appointed Director for the Eastern Mediterranean region after EBRD expanded under
her local leadership into Lebanon and West Bank and Gaza in 2017.
Prior to joining EBRD she worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Institute
for Fiscal Studies. She holds a PhD in economics from the University College London.
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Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) was formed on 1 January, 1992, by a decree issued by the late
Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum to merge Dubai Electricity Company and Dubai Water Department, which
had been operating independently before then. Both organisations were established by the late Sheikh Rashid
bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1959. Dubai Government fully supported the Electricity Company and the Water
Department to provide Dubai’s citizens and residents with a continuous and reliable supply of electricity
and water. Since then, DEWA has made considerable achievements, to be ranked as one of the best utilities in
the world. DEWA provides services today to more than 900,000 customers with a happiness rate that reached
95% in 2018.
The UAE, represented by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has maintained its first global
ranking, for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators in the
World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies
around the world. DEWA achieved competitive results in global benchmarking, surpassing the private sector
and major European and American utilities in efficiency and reliability. DEWA raised the efficiency of its
energy production by using the latest technologies and adopting technological innovations, surpassing
European and American utilities, by reducing losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks
to 3.3% compared to 6–7% in the US and Europe. DEWA also achieved the lowest customer minutes lost per year
(CML) in the world of 2.39 CML compared to 15 minutes in Europe and was also able to reduce water network
losses to 6.5% in 2018 compared to 15% in North America, which is one of the best results in the world.
