World Bank is keen to intensify cooperation with Egypt

CAIRO – 15 April 2019: Deputy President of the World Bank Mokhtar Diop stressed the bank's keenness to contribute to the development efforts in Egypt, especially in light of the economic and legislative reform measures that led to improving the investment climate.

Diop added that Egypt is a very important country in terms of the bank's fields of operation.

He also expressed the bank's aspiration to intensify cooperation with Egypt in various fields, namely transport and cooperation in the field of energy, entrepreneurship and digital transformation, during the country's presidency of the African Union.

This came during his meeting with Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr at the end of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank in Washington.

The two sides discussed the acceleration of the bank's support for the implementation of infrastructure projects in the African countries in light of Egypt's chairmanship of the African Union this year, and within the framework of the bank’s allocation of $57 billion to support Africa over the next three years.

They also agreed to cooperate in the development of regional integration projects with African countries, especially in the development of river navigation projects to promote trade and transport between the countries of the continent.

The discussions tackled the future cooperation between Egypt and the World Bank in the areas of infrastructure development to support economic development efforts and attract and stimulate private sector investment.

For her part, Nasr affirmed Egypt's keenness on benefiting from the World Bank's expertise in the field of digital transition in light of the bank's allocation of $25 billion to support digital transformation.

The two sides discussed areas of cooperation in developing the entrepreneurship sector, especially in the fields of technology, and the importance of activating cooperation in exchanging experiences with Silicon Valley to increase the ability of the emerging Egyptian companies to compete globally.

“It was agreed that the bank supports the transport sector as a priority sector,” according to the Investment Ministry’s statement.

The minister stressed the need to look at this sector strategically through the integration of the various sub-sectors of railways and roads and sea ports and rivers.

Nasr announced earlier that the World Bank’s investment portfolio in Egypt includes 16 projects with a total value of $6.7 billion.

Previously, the World Bank expected Egypt to achieve a growth rate of 5.5 percent during 2019, marking the second highest growth rate in the Middle East and North Africa behind Djibouti, which tops the forecasts by 7 percent.