Egypt's parliament ratified two deals with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a financial arm of the World Bank Group, and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD). The deals total $743 million and they target financing housing projects and establishing a wastewater system in the Bahr Al-Baqar area, Minister of International Cooperation Rania El-Mashat said on Wednesday. The IBRD deal aims to strengthen the capacity of the Social Housing Fund and supporting real estate financing through boosting coordination between the concerned authorities, establish an improved information management system, a structure for sound financial management and government, and enhance evaluation, monitoring and credit capacity, as well as providing support to lower-income families. The portfolio of ongoing projects with the IBRD includes 16 projects worth $4.8 billion in diverse sectors, such as social housing, health, education, local development, social protection, sanitation, petroleum, transportation, and the environment. The AFESD deal was signed in June for 75 million Kuwaiti dinars ($243.2 million) and aims to finance the construction of Bahr Al-Baqar drainage water system in the Sinai Peninsula. "To improve the lives of communities in Sinai, the project puts environmental sustainability at the heart of development through providing clean water and ensuring the protection of marine and coastal ecosystems in a sustainable manner against pollution. On top of that, it also helps build sustainable cities and communities through providing additional 100,000 job opportunities to help sustain families and improve the services provided to the population," said El-Mashat. The estimated cost of the project to establish the Bahr Al-Baqar Bank system is about $1 billion, and the Ministry of International Cooperation signed three previous agreements within the same framework, one of which id worth 70 million Kuwaiti dinars ($238 million) with the AFESD, and two deals for 75 million Kuwaiti dinars ($255 million) with the Kuwait Fund for Development. The Ministry of International Cooperation launched the "Global Partnerships for Effective Development Cooperation" multi-stakeholder platform in April 2020, prioritising cooperation between international development partners as well as the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
