WBG President praises Egypt's economic reform program

CAIRO - 4 May 2019: In his meeting with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, World Bank Group (WBG) President David Malpass praised Egypt's efforts of overcoming financial challenges it faced over the past few years, said Egyptian presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi in a statement on Saturday.

He commended Egypt's economic reform, which positively resulted in increasing growth rate, decreasing unemployment rate, and inflation decline, beside establishing a number of mega-projects for development, the statement added.

In his two-day visit to Egypt, Malpass has inspected a number of Egypt's mega-projects, including Benban Solar Park, world’s largest solar park, in Aswan, the statement said.

The meeting, which was attended by Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, and Chief of Egypt's General Intelligence Abbas Kamel, tackled other social projects in Egypt, especially the program of allocating 250,000 housing units for 1.5 million residents of slums. They also discussed the bilateral cooperation in the fields of health, infrastructure, education, industry, and the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Moreover, the two leaders discussed international and regional issues of mutual concern.

The WBG President's visit to Egypt is the first trip since he assumed the post in April 2019.

"Egypt’s success is critical for the stability of the region”, he said in a statement by the World Bank on Friday. “We welcome President Sisi’s implementation of powerful reforms while recognizing the need for further progress including on subsidies, governance, debt transparency, and state-owned enterprises," he added.

"Egypt has a tremendous opportunity to strengthen its economy by expanding the private sector – including energy, tourism and agri-business – to create more jobs and higher living standards. The World Bank Group looks forward to participating in the next vital phase of the reform program, including support for education, health care, social protection and poverty reduction, so that growth benefits everyone," he said.