A World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) delegation met Thursday with Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to reaffirm commitment to cooperate in reviving the country's ailing economy. Ministers of Electricity, Finance, Investment, International Cooperation, Petroleum, and Industry have also attended the meeting. Prime Minister Ismail has stressed the Egyptian government's genuine determination to cooperate with all the international financial institutions in order to adopt the necessary measures to revive the national economy and to improve the investment climate, the Cabinet spokesman Hossam Qaweesh said in a statement. Meanwhile, the representatives of the World Bank and AfDB, who are currently visiting Egypt, have asserted the two global lenders' willingness to cooperate with the Egyptian government to carry out its economic scheme. A week earlier, Egypt has started negotiations over a $3 billion loan from the World Bank, in addition to $1.5 billion from the AfDB to support development programmes in the state budget. Negotiations on loans began during the annual IMF-WB meetings in Lima, Peru earlier this month, when also the country visit was decided. Interest rates on these loans are less than two percent with a 35-year repayment scheme and five-year grace period. "These are soft terms to suit the nature of the developmental programmes adopted by the government," Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said a week ago. The government is still in the negotiation phase through which the exact value of the loans will be decided based on the best offer and government priorities "to better serve the economy and the Egyptian citizen," Nasr added.
