Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr met with the World Bank (WB) mission headed by the bank's Chief Technical Specialist on Finance and Markets Loic Chiquier and practice director for Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation in the Middle East region Najy Benhassine, where the two sides agreed to speed up the $500m funding to support the social housing projects. Nasr emphasised the importance of the continued support of the WB to the housing sector in Egypt, especially social housing, which is a priority for President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Adding that the government, led by Mostafa Madbouly, and acting housing minister, continues to implement its programme to provide suitable housing for citizens at affordable prices, provide a basic infrastructure for investors, and achieving sustainable development and job creation. The WB delegation praised the success of the social housing project, which was funded by $500m provided by the bank earlier. Nasr also emphasised the importance of the role of the WB's grants in the Sinai development plans. On a different note, there are reports that the Egyptian government requested an extra $2bn in funding to support Egypt's economic reform measures, Enterprise reported citing a senior government official. According to the report, the request was formally made on Monday, during a meeting between a WB delegation and Madbouly. Egypt has already borrowed $3bn from the WB, in support of its economic reform programme, the third disbursement, of which had arrived late 2017.
