AIIB grants $360mln to Egypt to support inclusive growth

ArabFinance: The board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank approved providing Egypt a development financing of $360 million to scale up impact in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and achieve a robust recovery from COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the cabinet.

The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have agreed to provide in total $720 million for the Development Policy Financing (DPF) framework, with $360 million from each institution.

Emphasizing country ownership and alignment with development partners to deliver results, the Minister explained that the DPF framework aims to support the second wave of structural reforms in Egypt through three main pillars, namely: enhancing macro-fiscal sustainability, enabling private sector development, and fostering women economic inclusion.

In recent years, development financing has become an increasingly important tool to finance the private sector and reduce income inequality, which is reflected in Egypts Vision 2030 that underscores the significance of optimizing the role of development partners to achieve the priorities of Egypts development.

The first pillar concerns enhancing macro-fiscal sustainability, which aims to support the management of state-owned enterprises through enhanced transparency and reporting, and improve debt transparency and debt management, as well as promoting a green economy through the issuance of green bonds.

The second pillar concerns enabling private sector development, which aims to streamline automation of trade facilitation, and modernize bankruptcy processes to improve Egypts competitiveness and private sector job creation. On top of that, it also strengthens the regulatory framework for private sector participation in waste management to pave the way for a green economy transition.

Finally, the third pillar concerns fostering women economic inclusion, which focuses on legislative and regulatory reforms that promote female participation in the labor force and supports Egypts strategies to address gender-based violence, such as the adoption of a national code of conduct that promotes safe and decent transportation for women in railways.

It is worth noting that Egypt's portfolio with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank now exceeds $1 billion in development and investment funds for the public and private sectors.