Egyptian government officials held talks with the World Bank on Tuesday to discuss the accelerated disbursement of the third and final tranche of Egypt's $3 billion loan. The talks took place in Washington on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting, with Minister of International Cooperation and Investment Sahar Nasr heading Egypt's delegation. Nasr met with the CEO of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Kristalina Georgia and the Vice President of the World Bank for the MENA region Hafez Ghanem. Under discussion was the accelerated signing of a final $1 billion tranche to support the country's economic and social program before the end of 2017. In March and September, Egypt received the first two $1 billion tranches from a total $3 billion package from the bank. During her meeting, Nasr highlighted the government's economic-reform efforts, as well as projects in transportation, education, infrastructure, and other development projects in North Sinai. "Collaboration between Egypt and the bank is moving on track in light of the bank's financing of Upper Egypt's development program with an amount of $500 million, and the social housing project with an amount of $550 million, and Social Safety Nets (SSN) with an amount of $400 million, and a sanitation system with an allocated amount of $500 million," the statement said. Nasr also extended an invitation to Kristalina Georgia to visit Egypt and participate in the "Investment for Sustainable Development: Africa 2017" forum, which will take place in December 2017. Georgia praised the economic reform measures undertaken by the Egyptian government, expressing the World Bank's keenness to increase support to Egypt in infrastructure-related projects, as well as continued support for its reform program. The World Bank finances several projects in Egypt, including projects related to energy, transport, water, wastewater, agriculture and irrigation, population, and health. It also supports employment-intensive projects and finances small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the bank's data, the current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 26 projects with a total commitment of $5.92 billion. Source: Ahram online
