The economic aid program for Egypt, recently announced by US President Barack Obama, will contribute to strengthening the Egyptian economy's ability to overcome repercussions of the current events and...

The economic aid program for Egypt, recently announced by US President Barack Obama, will contribute to strengthening the Egyptian economy's ability to overcome repercussions of the current events and their negative effects on State Budget, said Mahmoud Hussein, the Ministry of Finance's Head of Financing Sector. The US move comes at a timely and important period for the Egyptian economy; as the Ministry of Finance is about to complete drafting the largest budget in the history of Egypt, he added. The Ministry of Finance is currently preparing the operational procedures of the U.S. aid program, with respect to the $1 billion debt relief to Egypt through a swap mechanism which will re-direct this money to funding for a number of development projects in Egypt. This comes in cooperation with the concerned bodies in the Egyptian government in coordination with the American side. Meanwhile, a list of projects with top priority for Egypt at the current stage is currently being made, taking into account the fact that the projects would be of the intensive-labor type, he noted. Moreover, the Ministry of Finance is taking all the required procedures, in cooperation with the Central Bank, to decide on one of the widely represented public banks in the country, to finance small and medium enterprises, Hussein added. (Source:Ministry of Finance)