CAIRO: World Bank chief Robert Zoellick met on Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his first trip to Cairo as head of the development lender, the official Mena news agency reported.
Zoellick’s trip is aimed at “assessing the type of aid Egypt needs, whether financial or technical, during the two-day trip which includes talks with Investment Minister Mahmud Mohieldin.
The pace of economic reforms, the World Bank’s funding of infrastructure as well as poverty-reduction policies will be the focus of Zoellick’s talks, Mena reported.
Zoellick said last month that Arab countries have been “underserved by the World Bank and he wants to develop an initiative to grow more involved in the Arab world.
“If you look at Egypt, one of the challenges will be, can people create jobs and opportunity and have a sense that the government is meeting social needs? the World Bank president asked.
“(If not), others will try to meet those needs, as you have seen elsewhere in the Arab world.
In September, the bank rated Egypt the world’s “leading reformer, after reforms in five of the 10 areas studied in a report greatly improved the African country’s position in global rankings on the ease of doing business.
