Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat signed, on Thursday, six new grant agreements worth $90m with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The first agreement targets pumping $15m in the basic education sector, to improve the main skills of students, and training teachers. About $30m will be pumped through the second agreement in the Egyptian American Higher Education Initiative, to create an educated workforce that meets the needs of the labour market. The initiative aims to enhance the institutional capacity of the Egyptian higher education. Also, $4m will be directed through the third agreement to science and technology, to expand the scope of the relationship between the two countries in these fields. The fourth agreement provides $4.4m for agricultural and rural development, to increase incomes and employment opportunities for those in the agricultural business. The fifth agreement aims to pump $10m to improve the health sector by enhancing Egypt's family planning and reproductive health programme, and increasing its effectiveness and sustainability. Finally, the sixth agreement provides $26.5m to stimulate trade and investment in order to achieve economic growth, improve labour productivity, and increase the growth of small and medium enterprises. The USAID's cooperation portfolio in Egypt has amounted to more than $30bn since 1978 in various sectors, most notably health, population, and education, while the portfolio of ongoing projects since 2014 records $1bn.
