(AFP Photo)
A ministerial delegation from the United Arab Emirates, headed by the UAE’s National Security Chief Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, is due to arrive in Egypt in the coming days to lay down a detailed roadmap on the implementation of pledged aid.
Last Thursday, the Central Bank of Egypt confirmed it had received the UAE’s $3bn in aid.
The aid, comprised of a $1bn grant and $2bn interest-free deposit with the central bank, is part of the larger $12bn that Gulf Arab states pledged after the military deposed President Mohamed Morsi early this month following massive nationwide protests.
An Egyptian delegation from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources presented to an Emirati delegation that visited Egypt earlier this month a list of requests, set to include fuel products worth $500mn.
As for the rest of the Gulf aid, Central Bank governor Hisham Ramez said that $2bn of Saudi Arabia’s $5bn in aid is expected to arrive shortly in the form of an interest-free deposit at the bank. The amount is to be divided into $1bn cash, $2bn for petroleum products and another $2bn deposit.
Kuwait was also among the lenders, promising an aid package of $4bn to support Egypt’s troubled economy.
The Gulf’s economic lifelines are expected by various reports to raise Egypt’s net foreign currency reserves to more than $20bn, up from $14bn as of the end of June. In May, foreign reserves had registered $16.04bn due to injections of foreign aid from Turkey, Qatar and Libya.
The UAE was among the first Gulf countries to congratulate Egypt in the wake of last week’s ouster of Morsi. In 2011, it had pledged $3bn in aid to Egypt, but the funds were never delivered.
