The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has allocated $500m to finance several projects in the energy, water and sanitation sectors in Egypt over three years. Advisor to the fund, Mohamed Ibrahim Sadeghi, informed Daily News Egypt that they will complete financing projects related to the development of Sinai in the sectors of energy, water, and sanitation at a low interest rate, and a long repayment period of up to 25 years. He added that Egypt has received 48 loans from the fund until November, collectively worth some $3.3bn, of which $2.2bn were withdrawn to finance projects in the sectors of energy, water, industry, agriculture and transportation. Furthermore, Sadeghi pointed out that the loans were distributed as follows: 18 loans worth $1.6bn for the energy sector, 11 loans worth $594m for transport, four loans worth $96m for industry, and three loans worth $177m for the agriculture sector. He further stated that water and sanitation projects received seven loans from the fund worth $538m, along with five social development loans worth $290m. Moreover, he indicated that the Kuwait Fund aims to provide loans on soft terms, grants, and technical assistance for Egypt. It also funds many studies on projects in the energy and water sector, as well as manages the grants provided by the Kuwaiti government. Plus, Sadeghi highlighted the signing of loan No 1,000 with Egypt a few days ago, out of the total loans granted by the fund to some 106 countries. This loan is for funding the construction of the world's largest wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 5m cubic metres per day. The project aims to utilise the water of the Bahr Al-Baqr drain in the reclamation and cultivation of about 330,000 feddan east of the Suez Canal, as well as 70,000 feddan currently being cultivated in the areas of Sahl Al-Tina and Qantara Sharq, bringing the total cultivated area to 400,000 feddan. The project also aims to establish integrated agricultural development projects, including agricultural production, livestock, and industrial aspects, which will contribute towards increasing the quantities of exports and reducing imports, and create new jobs amounting to about 40,200 opportunities.
