(Adds detail on funding goals, background, IFC)
CAIRO, March 22 (Reuters) - The World Bank said on
Wednesday it had approved a new $7 billion partnership agreement
with Egypt for 2023-2027 with a focus on boosting private sector
jobs, provision of better health and education services, and
adaptation to climate change.
The Country Partnership Agreement (CPF) will entail $1
billion per year from the International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD) and about $2 billion over five years from
the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a statement from
the World Bank said.
Among the goals of the programme is to help create a level
playing field for the private sector and to encourage investment
and improve resilience to shocks through better macroeconomic
management, the statement added.
Egypt's economy has come under severe pressure over the past
year, after the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine
exposed underlying problems.
The government has announced ambitious privatisation plans
but sales of state assets have been repeatedly delayed.
Also on Wednesday the International Finance Corporation
(IFC), part of the World Bank Group, announced that it had
partnered with the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development and Egypt's Sovereign Fund to develop desalination
plants in Egypt through a public-private partnership model.
The scheme is part of Egypt's plan to increase desalinated
water supply by 8.8 million cubic metres of water daily by 2050,
with the first plants to be located in the north coast region of
Marsa Matrouh, the IFC said.
Egypt depends almost entirely for fresh water supplies on
the River Nile, and is considered at high risk from the impacts
of climate change.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Nadine Awadalla and Aidan Lewis,
Editing by Louise Heavens, William Maclean)
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