Airports and power sector in Egypt are set for upgrade after the country secured a loan worth $460m for the same from the Japanese Government.
According to the Egyptian minister for International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr they have already gotten into terms of three Japanese loans that will finance Egyptian national projects.
She said the loans that total up to $460m was finalised during Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s visit to Japan and they are likely to pay a low interest rate of between 0.1% and 0.3%.
“The good thing with the loans that we are going to receive we will be paying at a low interest and we will be paying the loans for 40 years and we will be having a grace period of ten years” she added
The first loan is for the construction of a passenger terminal in Borg Al-Arab Airport in Alexandria to accommodate an additional 4 million passengers at a cost of $155m.
Nasr said the second will be to increase the efficiency of electricity distribution companies at a cost of $210m.
The third loan will fund the construction of a power plant in Hurghada at a cost of $95m.
Al-Sisi arrived in Japan yesterday, following a visit by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to Egypt in January 2015.
Last year, Japan allocated nearly $200m to support Arab countries to fight “Islamic State” (IS) forces and to promote social and political stability, Daily News Egypt reported.
Fifty Japanese companies are currently working in Egypt in different sectors.
The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Japan in 2012 increased by 34%, amounting to $3bn compared to $2.2bn in 2011, according to the latest published figures in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry’s annual report.
