$17.5m shelled out on anti-mine action in North Coast

CAIRO – 11 August 2017: Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, Dr.Sahar Nasr chaired a meeting with the group of development partners on the second phase of the national project to proceed with anti-mine action in the Western North Coast.

The meeting was attendedby Mr. Reinhold Brender, EU Ambassador to Egypt and Dr. Randa Abulhassan the Director of the United Nations Development Program in Cairo, along with the UNDP Resident Representative, and Ambassador Said Hindam, General Fathi Mansour, Assistant Director of Military Engineers, Major General Mahrous El-Kilany and Hala Rafaat, who is in charge of implementing the project on behalf of the ministry.

The Ministry saw the 75th anniversary of Alamein battle and the end of the World War II as a good opportunity to call on its development partners to proceed with the mine clearance operation in the North West Coast, pointing out that the coming period will witness development projects in electricity, sanitation and housing as part of a comprehensive strategy to boost development in western Egypt.

The board of directors agreed on allocating $ 17.5 million to the Anti-Mines Action Project in Western North Coast for 6 months starting from October 2017 to April 2018, and also announced the commencement of the negotiations on the third phase of the project to allocate $ 5 million to clear the rest of the northern coast and the Sinai Peninsula.

On his part, Reinhold Brender, Resident Representative of the EU Delegation in Egypt, said that the cooperation in demining operations brought tangible results, underlining the European Union’s keenness to move forward with further cooperation with Egypt in the upcoming period in the field of mine clearance operations.