Egypt unveils LE 25 bln. plan to upgrade rural areas

An ambitious LE 25 billion 5-year government plan, aimed at improving people's livelihoods in rural areas nationwide, will start early July, said Prime Minister Atef Ebeid. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a conference to discuss a report on human development in Egypt over the coming year, prepared by the National Planning Institute in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which was held yesterday.

The plan's programme, covering 55 villages, is based on training and improving the quality of small industries projects and will also include soft loans through a fund to be established in each village. These loans will come from government allocations in collaboration with the UNDP and donor countries.

Ebeid said that experiments have proved that the offer of soft loans to people in rural areas ensures that they do their utmost to improve their families' standard of living.

He stated that the government spares no efforts to provide a prosperous future for all Egyptians by increasing economic and social development, adding that achievements have been accomplished in services in the provinces. These include health, education, services, tarring roads, and general telecommunications, in addition to creating regional TV channels.

Ebeid stressed the importance of benefiting from human resources through setting up enterprises in various locations such as the new economic areas north of the Suez Gulf and the Red Sea.