World Bank approves five-year plan to support Egypt development

The World Bank approved a new five-year strategy for Egypt that has improving the nation’s business environment and supporting green development among its goals.

Under the auspices of what it calls a country partnership framework, the bank lays out lending plans and formulates its operations and activities in nations.

The latest one to support Egypt follows a 2015-19 framework that was extended for two years.

It seeks to help create “more and better” private-sector jobs, support improved health and education services and improve Egypt’s resilience to shocks through strengthened macroeconomic management, and climate change adaptation and mitigation steps, the World Bank said in a statement.

The @WorldBank Group approved a new country partnership framework for #Egypt, centered around people, with governance and citizen engagement, and women’s empowerment being cross cutting themes. https://t.co/Iu0Vpzsd8P

— World Bank MENA (@WorldBankMENA) March 22, 2023

The programme “puts the Egyptian people at the center of its strategy, with a heavy focus on job creation by improving the business environment and leveling the playing field,” said Marina Wes, country director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have long said the Egyptian state needs to curb its role in the economy to give private enterprise more of an opportunity.

Lessening the state’s footprint is a key element in an IMF loan package negotiated last year.

The framework’s projects will be supported with a “financial envelope” of $7bn in lending, comprising of $1bn a year from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and about $2bn over the entire period from the International Finance Corp, according to the statement.

World Bank’s report

In other news, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report, global growth is “slowing sharply” in the face of elevated inflation, higher interest rates, reduced investment, and disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The global economy is projected to grow by 1.7 per cent in 2023 and 2.7 per cent in 2024.

Read: Global economy ‘slowing sharply’, projected to grow by 1.7% in 2023, says World Bank