Egypt inked three development agreements worth about $885 million with Arab funds between January and August, the international cooperation ministry said on Tuesday. The funds will be used for Sinai development, to support structural reform in the management of public finances, and to strengthen the health ministry's capacity to combat COVID-19, the ministry said in a statement. International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat said that one of the agreements had been signed with the Arab Monetary Fund to support structural and institutional reform to increase the efficiency of the management of public finances. That deal was worth 153.5 million Arab Accounting Dinars (AAD), equivalent to $637.9 million. Al-Mashat said the agreement comes within the framework of Egypt's economic reform programme, underway since 2016, which aims to promote resilience and stability in economy via five main objectives: improving the processes of preparing and implementing the state's general budget, improving tax administration, improving government procurement management, strengthening the social protection system, and improving public debt management. The ministry also inked an agreement worth about 75 million Kuwaiti dinars, equivalent to $243.2 million, with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. The funds will be used to implement a project establishing the Bahr El-Baqar water drainage system, as part of the Sinai development plan, Al-Mashat said. The third deal signed was a 1 million Kuwaiti dinar grant agreement with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, equivalent to $3.3 million, to support the efforts of the health ministry to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooperation with Arab developments funds began in 1974, the ministry said, and the total cooperation portfolio with bodies including the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development has totalled $12.5 billion since then, including a current portfolio of $6.9 billion.
