Egypt will sign a US$200 million loan with the World Bank Tuesday, state news agency MENA reported. Planning and International Cooperation Minister Ashraf al-Araby will sign the loan with Inger Andersen, the World Bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa region, in the presence of Prime Minister Hesham Qandil. “We have discussed ways to strengthen future cooperation between the Egyptian government and the World Bank,” Araby said following a meeting with Andersen Monday. He explained that the loan would be allocated for small projects through the Social Development Fund to create job opportunities for Egyptian citizens. Araby also said a strategy to double national income would be finalized next week by experts from the ministry. At the beginning of August, Egypt announced that the World Bank agreed to give the country a loan of $200 million to fund the upgrade of sanitation and sewage infrastructure in four governorates in the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt. The loan came under heavy fire when Egypt's then-ruling military council accepted it but some Salafi MPs criticized it, saying the interest rate violated Sharia. Former Planning and International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abouelnaga has said the interest rate for the loan would be 1.29 percent over 28 1/2 years. Edited translation from MENA
