The World Bank has disbursed $125 million in financial assistance to Egypt out of its $500 million Upper Egypt local development loan programme, Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said Monday. The $500 million World Bank loan programme will help create jobs in Upper Egypt by enhancing the business climate and improving infrastructure and the delivery of services, the bank said in an earlier statement. The goal of the programme is to empower sub-national governments in these areas to deliver better infrastructure and services for economic development, job creation and social wellbeing. The programme will focus on the governorates of Qena and Sohag, which are among the poorest in the country. It aims to enhance the competitiveness of economic sectors with unrealised potentials, support industrial zone management, apply a performance-based grant system, and increase the budget of both governorates. Private sector coordination and investment, as well as local governance, will be improved, and a participatory approach that engages citizens at all levels will be followed. Upper Egypt, which includes ten governorates, is home to about 38 percent of Egypt's population and 67 percent of its poor, the bank said. This programme comes within the framework of the World Bank's Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2015–19, which provides about $8 billion to support vital sectors of Egypt's economy.
