The World Bank Group (WBG) launched the preparation for a new partnership strategy with Egypt, which will guide the Group’s engagement in the country for the next five years.
The preparation of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) was kicked off today with the Government of Egypt. Consultations will take place in Cairo, Upper Egypt and Alexandria with a diversified group of stakeholders including academia, civil society, private sector as well as Egypt's development partners.
The Strategy aims at supporting Egypt’s development priorities in the new economic and political context consistent with the regional strategy of the World Bank Group in the Middle East and North Africa and the WBG overarching goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
“We are committed to continue supporting Egypt’s efforts in addressing its current development challenges and we look forward to listening to various stakeholders on how best we can support Egypt,” said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Country Director Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. Egypt has a unique set of advantages that qualifies it to become a powerful emerging economy.”
The CPS is a joint strategy of the three WBG institutions - the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - and will build on their respective strengths and areas of expertise. The processing of strategy will be over the coming 6 months.
"This consultation process marks an important milestone in our partnership with Egypt," said Nada Shousha, IFC Country Manager for Egypt, Libya and Yemen. "This process will help us identify challenges and development priorities which we should focus on in the coming few years. We are committed to private sector development in Egypt and look forward to years of fruitful partnership with our stakeholders in the country."
The regional consultations demonstrate the significance of lagging regions as a development priority for Egypt and also underline the World Bank’s keenness for inclusion and listening to input and feedback from stakeholders across the nation. On-line consultations will take place through a dedicated website and relevant documents will be available in Arabic and English.
The World Bank Group in Egypt:
The current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 24 projects for a total commitment of US$4.6 billion as well as 43 trust fund grants for a total commitment of US$190.2 million. The World Bank finances projects for faster delivery of benefits to the people of Egypt in key sectors including energy, transport, water and sanitation, agriculture and irrigation as well as health and education. In supporting job creation, about 111,000 new jobs were created by last December through Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project (US$300 million). Furthermore, a quarter million jobs for unemployed, unskilled and semi-skilled workers are being created through the Egypt Emergency Labor Intensive Investment Project.
Between Fiscal Year (FY) 2011-FY14, IFC committed over US$1 billion in 17 projects (of which US$303 million is mobilization). IFC has a total portfolio of around US$1 billion in 34 projects as of December 2013, the largest in MENA region. IFC investments include: financial markets, chemicals, oil and gas, agribusiness, manufacturing and health care sectors.
In FY2013, MIGA issued a guarantee for US$150 million, reinsuring the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s coverage to Apache Corporation for the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas helping the supply of energy keep up with the growing domestic demand.
