Egypt is engine of growth in Middle East: WB

The World Bank aims to eliminate poverty and promote social inclusion in Egypt, already providing technical assistance to the Suez Canal Area Development project, said World Bank Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti Hartwig Schafer.

Schafer sat with Daily News Egypt to discuss the World Bank’s current and future projects in Egypt, mentioning that their partnership with the country has strengthened throughout the past three years.

What is the value of the current World Bank portfolio in Egypt?

We currently have a portfolio of 27 projects and they account for around $5.5bn. Around half of these 27 projects are in the energy sector, because we believe that reliable power supply is absolutely critical for the development of the country, it is important for the private sector and the people as well. In the energy sector, we are supporting power generation as we are financing Giza North Power Project with $840m that aims to generate 2,250-MW, which is huge and accounts for around 10% of the nation’s needs, we also have Ain Sokhna and Helwan South. In addition to generation, we are also supporting and we will do much more in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and we very much like that the Egyptian government has introduced the feed-in tariff to encourage private investors to invest in solar power and wind energy.

Do you think the government can achieve its goal to produce around 20% of its needs through new and renewable energy by 2020?