Sahar Nasr to attend World Bank annual meetings in Washington

The Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr will travel to Washington on Wednesday to participate in the annual meetings of the World Bank.

The minister is expected to hold several meetings with the World Bank’s officials, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and a number of major US investors and companies. Nasr will be accompanied by a high-profile delegation, including the head of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), Mohamed Farid; the acting CEO of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), Mohamed Omran; and the senior adviser of the Ministry of Investment for Economic Affairs, Shehab Marzban.

Nasr said that the Egyptian delegation will focus in the discussions on supporting investments in Egypt, benefiting from Egypt’s improving ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report, which came as a result of recent legislative reforms that contributed to the development of investment environment during the last period.

In September, Egypt jumped 15 notches in the 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, recording the biggest Arab move in the report. This year’s results highlight Egypt’s advancement of 74 places on the sub-indicators of anticorruption efforts, the highest ranking in North Africa and the Middle East.The Egyptian government also ranked among the top 50 governments in terms of state officials’ exploitation of power.

Nasr said her scheduled meetings with the World Bank and IFC officials will discuss development projects for youth and women, as well as supporting the government’s initiative “Your Idea is Your Company”.

The Egyptian delegation will also meet with heads of financial institutions with strong ties with the Egyptian government, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Islamic Development Bank. A World Bank delegation visited Cairo in March to negotiate the third tranche—worth $1bn—of the bank’s $3bn loan to Egypt.