Continuous upgrading

Among the highlights of the visit by the board of the European Investment Bank to Cairo were tours of projects the bank has helped to develop and expand through its provision of loans, reports Niveen Wahish
The European Investment Bank's (EIB) board of directors, headed by EIB President Philippe Maystadt, left Cairo this morning following a five-day visit. During its stay, the board held its annual meeting and met with President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Atef Ebeid as well as the Egyptian ministers of economy, international cooperation and foreign affairs. The board also visited seven projects financed by the bank, one of which is Al-Ahram's printing facilities.
Inaugurated in 1996, these facilities are located on a 37,000-square-metre plot of land in Sixth of October City. The establishment of these cost LE270 million, to which the EIB contributed 35 million euro (LE136 million) as a loan in 1994. The first instalment on the loan was repaid in 1998 while the last instalment is scheduled for 2008. The remainder of the cost of the printing facilities, LE134 million, was provided by Al-Ahram organisation.
During the board's tour of the facilities, Maystadt praised Al-Ahram's efforts to continually upgrade itself, "It is one of the oldest newspapers in the world adapting to a changing environment," he commented.
Other projects visited by the board include the MIDOR refinery, the Alexandria Tyre Factory, and the Egyptian Aluminium plant.
The EIB has been financing Egyptian projects since 1978. Since then it has lent some 2 billion euro to various projects for infrastructure, industry, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and environment-related projects. According to Maystadt, the EIB "could do more in Egypt," explaining that although the bank is mainly financing projects in the private sector, it is willing to provide finance for more state projects.
Once a year the EIB board of directors holds a meeting outside the bank's headquarters in Luxembourg to allow members to have direct contact with EIB customers and discuss issues with local government, financial and business representatives. This year they chose Egypt because of its importance in the Mediterranean region, said Henry Marty-Gauquie, EIB director of communications. He emphasised that the size of Egypt's economy and its dynamism along with the country's political role are factors giving the country prominence.
While in Egypt the board also signed four new agreements to extend over 36.44 million euro (euro= $0.88) of financing to support industrial and technological SMEs as well as environmental feasibility studies. Of this amount, a 30 million euro loan will go to the Export Development Bank of Egypt which will subsequently lend it to SMEs. Six million euro of the loan will go to the Middle East Technology Fund (METF) to support the development of the region's information technology (IT) industry. METF will invest this sum in private IT companies located in Egypt and Turkey. A feasibility study on the modernisation and extension of the Cairo West waste water collection and treatment infrastructure will receive 350,000 euro. And 90,000 euro will be used to finance a study to examine the management of agricultural solid waste.
The EIB participates in implementing the European Union's development aid and cooperation policies.
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