CAIRO: The Japanese Ambassador to Cairo, Norihiro Okuda signed with Egypt's Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Ganzouri, and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Dr. Faiza Abu Naga, the first memorandum for the granting of a soft loan with the Japanese currency yen. It represents the first Japanese loan after Egypt's 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak. The total value of the loan amounted to 32 billion and 717 million Japanese yen, allocated for the first phase of the fourth line of the Metro in Cairo. Sadako Ogata, the Director of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Minister of Transport, Dr. Mostafa Mohamed Said, signed the agreement for this loan. The Japanese embassy in Cairo said in a press release on Monday, that this project supports efforts exerted by Egypt to achieve internal reforms and democracy, where this project aims at meeting the growing demand for public transport and reducing the problem of traffic congestion, as well as to achieve development and economic and social stability in Egypt by creating jobs, and through the construction of a line with the capacity of 16 metro stations, and a length of nearly 17 kilometers. Japan is providing assistance to Egypt in the following areas: creating jobs, stimulating industry and manufacturing, and human resource development. The project comes at the request of the Egyptian government and is considered a soft loan. It is expected for this project, to help in solving the traffic congestions in Greater Cairo, as the Metro Line would be used by approximately 1,350,000 passengers per day in 2020, and two million and a half per day in 2050. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/cKsOv Tags: Egypt, Industry, Japan, Jobs, Loan, Metro Line Section: Business, Egypt, Latest News
