The World Bank has given its support to Egypt’s economic reform efforts, according to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim during a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Sunday.
Al-Sisi is currently in the US to attend the 70th UN General Assembly in New York.
Presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef said that Al-Sisi had emphasised that “Egypt is determined to achieve comprehensive development, alongside efforts to achieve security stability and fight against corruption and poor exploitation of resources” which is evidenced by its economic reforms.
Whilst in New York, Al-Sisi has held consultations with several representatives from international companies, to ensure the flow of more foreign capital to Egypt.
According to an official statement, Al-Sisi said that Egypt has implemented several national projects “to which the bank can effectively contribute”, including the reclamation and development of 1.5m acres.
The land reclamation project has been a top priority for President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi since he took office, alongside the Suez Canal Axis development project and the “Golden Triangle” project, amongst others.
“I understand Egypt’s circumstances and the need to speed up development efforts,” Jim said, who added that the World Bank strongly supports Egypt’s economic reform efforts.
The Egyptian government is looking to strengthen the country’s investment climate to attract foreign investments, which will help stimulate the sluggish economy. Egypt’s economy has been negatively affected by political events since the 25 January Revolution.
Al-Sisi participated in a meeting on Sunday morning called by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, which discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries.
The meeting was attended by several Heads of State in New York, as well as the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the heads of several international financial institutions. The Director of the UN Development Program and the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were also in attendance at the meeting.
During the meeting, Al-Sisi stressed that cooperation between developing countries “must possess an increasing share in the international economic cooperation system, through the employment of regional and international economic frameworks to serve the objectives of this cooperation, especially with respect to food, health, and education issues and infrastructure development”.
Al-Sisi also spoke of the challenges developing countries face in their pursuit of sustainable development and progress. He emphasised the importance of providing the necessary funding to developing countries and activating the transfer of technology for these countries to face development challenges.
Al-Sisi also stressed the importance of developed countries’ commitment to allocate the equivalent of 0.7% of their GDP to the OECD’s Official Development Assistance fund.
