$900 million available from World Bank to Egypt

Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Atef Ebeid this week conferred with World Bank (WB) regional Vice President for the Middle East And North Africa Jean-Louis Sarbib on the decisions adopted during the Sharm El-Sheikh conference for the donor countries.

"Implementing youth employment programs and accomplishing infrastructure ventures such as building schools, health units as well as potable water and sanitary drainage stations come on top of the national action priorities," Ebeid said.

Meanwhile, Sarbib underlined the WB commitment to Sharm El-Sheikh resolutions, especially providing urgent needs of foreign currency to Egypt in order to confront the aftermath of the September 11 events.

He said the government has to adopt additional steps to boost the Egyptian economy's all-out indices and overcome the problems that recently cropped up, especially after September 11.

"The most prominent of these measures is to curb the overpopulation problem, carrying out some monetary amendments, realizing growth rates so as to improve the trade balance, as well as expand the implementation of social programmes mainly designed to reduce the problem of poverty," Sarbib said.

The WB official said there are some $ 900 million available from the WB to Egypt, of which $ 50 million only will be granted annually.

He also voiced the WB readiness to support the Egyptian government in implementing health and social services, creating new jobs and extending more loans to small-scale enterprises.