On Sunday, 9th December 2018, the World Bank and Egypt signed an agreement of $1 billion at the Africa 2018 Investment Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt where the signing ceremony of the private sector development for inclusive growth development policy financing took place.
The funding is to support the next phase of the country’s reform program and finance the government’s economic development program, “Egypt Takes Off”. The focus of these programs is to create opportunities and raise the standard of living for Egyptians by promoting the private sector and improving government performance. The Egyptian government hopes to do this by supporting small businesses, the country’s largest source of jobs while improving the ability of local governments to provide services to their citizens.
‘’Our aim is to create more and better opportunities for Egyptians, and promote inclusive and sustainable development; our partnership with the World Bank is accelerating our efforts towards that goal,” said Dr. Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation who also represents Egypt on the World Bank’s Board of Governors. ‘”Small businesses are our biggest source of jobs, and with the support of this project we are aiming to provide them with a more conducive environment that will enable them to start and grow their businesses, with a focus on youth, women, and underserved regions.”
The new program is a part of a broader package support by the World Bank to Egypt’s goal of including the private sector while ensuring public funds are properly reallocated to build human capital by investing in the education and health of its people. It is encouraging reforms to the education system by providing resources and equipping students with the necessary skills required by the labour market. It is also partnering with Egypt to improve the quality and access of the health sector of the country and sanitation services.
With the support of a multi-year bank program that ended in 2017, economic reforms in Egypt skyrocketed growth from 4.2 percent in 2017 to 5.3 percent in 2018 with expectations to climb six percent next year. These reforms have yielded good performance and attracted investments to the energy sector.
The energy sector reforms have freed up public funds for the quadrupling of budgets for social safety nets; about 10 million of vulnerable Egyptians receive cash transfers not only to protect them from potential adverse effects of the reforms but to build paths out of poverty by encouraging families to focus on the education and health of their children.
The World Bank has partnered with Egypt on so many projects as it is interested in helping the country focus on the protection of its citizens, the inclusion of the private sector, providing infrastructures for education and health and everything that would gear the country towards economic development.
