CAIRO: Chief Executive of the World Bank (WB), Robert Zoellick, said the bank gives its priority to fund the Middle East by providing food security and helping Egypt bypass the commodities crisis. Zoellick added the WB will support Egypt in overcoming low income crisis and help the demands of the poor. The WB also wants to help with the bread crisis that has gotten worse after the January 25 Revolution. Small projects are being studied with the Egyptian government to improve its bread production machineries, he continued. Zoellick said in a statement global food prices picked up to its highest rate. Around 44 million people fell in into poverty since June 2010. Therefore, the Bank will enhance efforts to overcome the price fluctuation to achieve food security for the poor. The Bank will provide U.S. $4 billion for price fluctuation to enable consumers and producers of agricultural goods to get reserved covering aids. It will also increase resources allocated to fund the agricultural sector with a cost of U.S. $4 to $6 billion annually comparing to $ 4.1 billion in 2008, according to Zoellick. As a sign of concern for the Middle East, Zoellick said the International Finance Corporation and the Islamic Bank for Development launched a program to mobilize around U.S. $2 billion to support an initiative of ‘education for employment.' The initiative represents a very vital project if applied in an area with 25 percent of unemployed individuals.
