A Saudi fund has offered the Egyptian government US$750 million in grants for Egyptian development. According to a recently-released cabinet statement, the Saudi Development Fund offered the grant in three divisions. The first is a donation of US$200 million for small and medium-sized enterprises. The second is a soft loan of US$500 million to finance top-priority development projects that would be paid back in 20 years with an interest rate of 2 percent. The third part of the grant, the amount of which was not mentioned by the cabinet statement, targets non-oil Saudi exports to Egypt. The statement said the Saudi side had already provided US$500 million as a budget subsidy. The Egyptian government has also signed a separate loan of US$50 million with the fund to finance the construction of an electricity station in the city of Banha, Qalyubiya Governorate. Egypt's electricity minister, Hassan Younis, and the vice chairman of the Saudi fund, Youssef al-Bassam, signed the agreement. Translated from the Arabic Edition
