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Major General Mahmoud Shaarawy, Minister of Local Development, received a delegation from the World Bank that includes Frederica Rangeri, Director of Sustainable Development Programs, Dr. Mohamed Nada, Senior Urban Development Expert, Harsh Joel, Urban Development Specialist, Samar Adel, Local Development Consultant, and Ankush Sharma, Climate Change Expert, in the presence of Dr. Hisham El Helbawy, Assistant Minister of Local Development and Director of the Local Development Program in Upper Egypt, Dr. Khaled Abdel Halim, Deputy Program Director, and a number of the Local Development Program team in Upper Egypt.

The meeting witnessed a review of the latest developments of the local development program in Upper Egypt with regard to the industry component, enhancing competitiveness, and supporting economic blocs in the governorates of Sohag and Qena. Work for the residents of the two provinces.

Shaarawy stressed the ministry's interest in developing the work systems of the local administration, developing economic blocs in the two governorates, and linking them with existing industrial areas to create an integrated value chain to create job opportunities that achieve decent employment rates for citizens.

The meeting also witnessed a review of the developments of the local planning component, improving the quality of public services and developing local self-resources. The Minister of Local Development emphasized the ministry's interest in achieving financial decentralization and enabling governorates to manage their financial and economic affairs and developing local revenues, especially with regard to parking, squares, advertisements, waiting areas and markets.

Dr. Mohamed Nada praised the great development witnessed by the local planning component and the development of self-resources in the governorates of Qena and Sohag during the last period and the development of a model regulation governing revenues in the two governorates.

Frederica Rangeri, Director of Sustainable Development Programs, also expressed her happiness with the current partnership between the World Bank and the Ministry of Local Development in many files and programs, especially the Local Development Program in Upper Egypt, which has achieved many successes during the last period.

Major General Mahmoud Sharawy praised the level of cooperation between the Ministry and the World Bank to support the efforts of the Egyptian government in many files of interest to citizens in various Egyptian governorates, and "Sharawy" referred to the President's directives to generalize the practices of the local development program in Upper Egypt, as a model for local development. Integrated, in all governorates of Upper Egypt during the next three years.

The Minister of Local Development stressed that the program supports the application of decentralization and can be replicated in the governorates of Upper Egypt to enable them to manage the development process at the local level, whether at the level of planning or following up on the implementation of projects and building institutional and human capacities for local administration cadres.

During the meeting, a number of studies and initiatives adopted by the Ministry of Local Development were reviewed within the framework of the ministry's role in the next November climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. Major General Mahmoud Shaarawy indicated that the Ministry of Local Development had adopted the launch of the sustainable Egyptian cities initiative in cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and Utilities.

The World Bank delegation indicated that the climate change file is one of the pillars of the Bank’s work during the current period, as well as supporting the trend towards sustainable cities, whether new or old.