The FINANCIAL — The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on December 20 approved US$1 billion in a development policy finance operation for Egypt to support the Government’s economic reforms program across key economic areas. This is the Second Fiscal Consolidation, Sustainable Energy, and Competitiveness Programmatic Development Policy Financing (DPF).
“We welcome the World Bank’s support of the transformational economic reform agenda of the government. This program supports our home grown program to help Egypt realize its full potential and raise the living standards of all its people,” said H.E. Dr. Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation who also represents Egypt on the World Bank’s Board of Governors.
“We are pleased to continue supporting the country’s ambitious program of reforms with a strong focus on job creation and boosting the competitiveness of Egyptian businesses,” said Asad Alam, World Bank Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.
The DPF supports the country’s inclusive economic reform program. Key to this are efforts to create jobs, spur growth, and attract new investment. This is to be achieved through an enabling economic environment that puts public finances on a more sustainable footing, supports energy security, efficiency, and investment, and helps improve the business environment for small and medium enterprises through cutting red tape, reducing barriers to entry, and promoting better competition policies, according to the World Bank.
The DPF program is based on collaboration with development partners, especially the African Development Bank which is providing a parallel financing of USD 500 million.
“The policies supported by program would help private sector led job creation and promote transparency in functioning of key sectors of finance, industry and energy,” said Ashish Khanna and Ibrahim Chowdhury, co-Task Leaders of the program from World Bank. “Among other things, the DPF program seeks to bring about significant changes in Egypt’s energy profile, in particular measures to bring modernization of electricity and petroleum sectors, along with the shift toward more renewables in the electricity generation mix,” they added.
The World Bank finances programs and projects to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity for the people of Egypt through investments in key sectors including social safety nets, energy, transport, water and sanitation, agriculture and irrigation, social housing, primary health care, as well as supporting employment-intensive projects and financing for micro- and small enterprises.
The current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 25 projects for a total commitment of about $8.5 billion.
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