CAIRO: Egypt's interim government has made a new request to receive funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the bank's president said on Tuesday. Last May, the EBRD said it would begin considering a request from Egypt's then-government to be included in the lender's countries of operation, currently numbering 29. Speaking to reporters on a trip to Israel, EBRD President Thomas Mirow said Egypt renewed its request this month after a government reshuffle following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down following weeks of mass protests. "The message was: We need you more than ever because we are in a transition process. We want to be an open Egyptian economy and we want to foster the private sector and that's where you (the EBRD) can be helpful," Mirow told reporters during a trip to Israel, which is a shareholder in the EBRD. He said the new request was conveyed in a letter from Planning and International Cooperation Minister Fayza Aboul Naga. Mirow has said the EBRD was willing to invest up to €1 billion a year if its 63 shareholders, which include Egypt, approve Cairo's application. He said operating in Egypt would depend on whether the country was committed to democracy, a multi-party political system and a free market economy. "No one can be completely sure this is the direction the country is heading," Mirow said. "But it is not too different from the situation in central and eastern Europe 20 years ago." The EBRD was set up in 1991, originally to help former communist economies in central and eastern Europe adjust to free markets.
