Egypt
Egypt re-affirms need to improve investment climate

afrol News, 14 October - During a visit of World Bank James D. Wolfensohn, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today re-affirmed "the need to fight poverty and to design and implement reforms that will increase exports, improve the business and investment climate and help attract foreign investments." Mr Wolfensohn however urged for quicker reforms. 

Today, Mr Wolfensohn was received by Egypt's President Mubarak, and the two men had agreed on following the current economic policy course. Egypt has a broad cooperation with the IMF and World Bank, following these institutions' principles of structural reform and poverty reduction.

The World Bank President however also had urged the Egyptian authorities to speed up their reform programmes. He was quoted saying that higher growth was needed if the country's financial objectives were to be met. "You don't get improvement unless you have growth, and your growth has diminished, along with the growth of the rest of the world," he said. 

- In Egypt as in the rest of the world, there is broad consensus on what needs to be done, said World Bank President Wolfensohn today, speaking at a press conference at the end of his four-day visit to Egypt. "The challenge is to act and to act now," he added. Egypt therefore Egypt should quickly implement reforms that would increase exports, improve the business climate and attract more foreign investment.

Earlier during his visit, Mr Wolfensohn met with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and members of the economic Cabinet. Prime Minister Ebeid briefed the World Bank President on the economic impact of the 11 September events on the economy and how the government dealt with it, the recent mortgage law, money laundering, private economic zones and customs tariff reforms, and the implementation status of the 18 World Bank financed projects in Egypt. 

According to the World Bank, Mr Wolfensohn expressed had the Bank's commitment "to support Egypt and to enhance the cooperation with the Government and the people of Egypt to help accelerate equitable and sustained economic growth and create jobs." 

Together with the private sector and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Mr Wolfensohn participated in the launch of a new non-governmental organisation; Lend, Empower, Advance, Develop (LEAD) Foundation, which aims at training underprivileged Egyptians and financing small businesses.

In a new effort to strengthen local small and medium enterprises in Egypt, Mr Wolfensohn had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, establishing the North Africa Enterprise Development Facility (NAEDF) in Egypt. NAEDF is being funded by the World Bank's private sector affiliate, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other donors, including Switzerland and France. 

According to a Bank release, NAEDF is to "help small and medium enterprises attract necessary financing for their ventures, prioritising projects with potential to develop self-sustaining enterprises, generate employment, increase skills, and stimulate export earnings." The new Facility was also to provide other essential services such as training and research, and work with the World Bank to frame and promote policy reforms aimed to improve the local business climate.

During his four-day visit, Mr Wolfensohn further had visited World Bank financed projects in Egypt related to education, water resource management and community based development and had the chance to talk to Bedouins, farmers, students, teachers, women and others who participate and benefit from these Bank-supported projects. He also visited the newly reconstructed Bibliotheca Alexandrina. 

Sources: Based on World Bank

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