Egypt has signed Thursday four memoranda of understanding and one agreement totalling $3.1 billion with South Korea, as part of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's current visit to Seoul. Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr signed the deals in the presence of President Sisi and South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Minister Nasr said Egypt signed a framework agreement with Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank), aiming to get benefit from the soft loans provided by bank through its government fund, the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) that evaluates and implements aid projects in developing countries. For the memoranda of understanding, they are totalling $3 billion, distributed as $700 million in form of soft loans designated to finance developmental projects in Egypt. In addition, the second memorandum of understanding, worth $2.3 billion in form of export credit loans, will go for financing Egyptian projects in transport as well as solar and renewable energy sectors, with the possibility to add more projects of high priority for the Egyptian government, the minister added. The third memorandum of understanding was to secure a special grant to build the Egyptian-South Korean Faculty of Technology, which will be located in Beni Suef, about 115 km (71 miles) south of Cairo. Moreover, Minister Nasr said the fourth memorandum of understanding, valued at $114.98 million, was dedicated to secure the first soft loan deal between Egypt and South Korea to develop a traffic light systems from Naga Hammadi to Luxor, stretching to 118 km. The soft loan will be in favour of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport and the Egyptian Railway Authority, with an annual interest rate of 0.15 percent and a ten-year grace period to be paid over 40 years.
