World Bank (WB) officials have agreed to grant a $1.5 billion concessional loan to the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities in order to fund the social housing programme and improve villages' sanitation system, Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday. The announcement came after Madbouly's visit to the United States this week to meet with World Bank officials, a Tuesday statement from the ministry said. Madbouly stated that Egypt will obtain a concessional loan with the value of $500 million for the social housing programme, over several years, with around $100-120 million annual instalments. The World Bank will also participate in a project involving the establishment of sanitation networks for 760 contaminated villages in northern Egypt; the project is valued at $1bn and will be implemented over a period of three years. A World Bank delegation is slated to visit Egypt in October to cooperate on the sanitation project and start consultations, the statement added. Earlier this week, Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman disclosed that a delegation from the World Bank is set to visit Egypt in two weeks to discuss cooperation for investment legislation and improvements for the business climate. Total funding from the World Bank has reached $5.4bn over 25 prjects, according to WB Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti Hartwig Schafer. WB-financed projects in Egypt focus on several areas, including: managing and developing integrated irrigation systems; improving education; developing wind energy and electric power stations, including the Ain Sokhna power plant; controlling pollution; and building infrastructure for integrated sewage systems. Source: Daily News Egypt
