Egypt has signed on Friday a financing agreement worth $500 million with the World Bank to support the Upper Egypt Local Development Programme, on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF annual meetings in Washington, DC. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group Annual Meetings have kicked off today in Washington The Upper Egypt Local Development Programme will focus on Qena and Sohag governorates and on delivering services to lagging regions, providing youth and women with job opportunities, and improving infrastructure. Qena and Sohag are two of the poorest governorates in Egypt. Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and World Bank vice president Hafez Ghanem have signed the financing agreement. The programme aims to enhance competitiveness of economic sectors with unrealised potentials, support industrial zone management, apply a performance-based grant system and increase the budget of both governorates. This programme comes within the framework of the World Bank's Country Partnership Framework (CPF) with Egypt for 2015–2019, which provides about $8 billion for supporting the country's economy.
