5.5 million citizens benefited from UELDP and 369,000 jobs in Qena and Suhag
Major General Hisham Amna, Minister of Local Development, held a meeting with Major General Tariq al-Fiqi, Governor of Suhag, and Major General Ashraf al-Dowdy, Governor of Quena, and a delegation from the World Bank headed by Ms. Marina Weis, Country Director of Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti at the bank.
This includes Dr. Mohamed Nada, Senior Urban Development Expert, and Ms. Ellen Olafsen, Senior Private Sector Expert and Salma Rasmy Private Sector Development Support Consultant, in the presence of Dr. Hisham Al-Helbawi, Director of the Local Development Program in Egypt, a number of members of the Program Coordination Office in the Ministry of Local Development and a representative of the Ministry of Cooperation The meeting comes in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of the launch of the local development program in Egypt and within the framework of the visit by a mission of high-level experts from the World Bank to Egypt and the visit to the governorates of Suhag, Quena and Minya.
Major General Hisham Amna pointed out that during the five years of the development programme, the level of livestock has contributed to serving more than 5.5 million citizens in the governorates of Suhag and Quena and more than 100,000 enterprises and employers, and has created 396,000 jobs through investments made in infrastructure, the development of industrial zones and the development of promising economic clusters, with 16.3 billion pounds investments .
The Minister of Local Development explained that the program during the past years has implemented about 4123 projects, including about 3600 projects that have been fully completed and the rest are currently being completed. The minister added that despite the importance of all projects of the program, I would like to point out the success of the program in reviving previous investments in the sanitation and drinking water sector, estimated at 6 billion pounds, as 7 treatment plants with a total capacity of 57 thousand cubic meters/day and 20 lifting stations have been completed to cover two cities and 14 villages with sanitation services, in addition to extending and strengthening services Sanitation in 10 cities and villages with a total number of beneficiaries 2 million citizens.
Dr. Hisham Al-Helbawi, Director of the Local Development Program in Egypt, thanked the World Bank for its cooperation with the relevant ministries to implement the program during the past period, which contributed to many successes and the implementation of thousands of projects that contributed to comprehensive change in all fields in the governorates of Suhag and Quena.
Marina Weiss added that the Quena and Suhag local development program is a success model that the Bank has continuously followed in both provinces. She also pointed out the unprecedented progress from the program during the previous period, especially in the areas of supporting the competitiveness of economic clusters, improving services and citizen engagement, in the context of promoting local economic development.
Dr. Mohamed Nada said that the program witnessed a remarkable development on the level of environmental considerations, occupational health and safety and social considerations during the implementation of the project.
The World Bank delegation also presented the results of the visits they had made during the past two weeks in the governorates of Quena and Suhag to a number of technological centres to serve investors and citizens, taking stock of the activities carried out in these centres, which included the automation, standardization and simplification of procedures, increasing the efficiency of equipping and furnishing these centres and raising the capabilities of the task forces. It also visited the ongoing projects to annex the industrial zones in Qaft in Quena and West Tahta in Suhag and the sanitation infrastructure projects being implemented by the programme.
Representatives of the World Bank emphasized the Bank's support for the Presidential Initiative for a Dignified Life, an integrated program for rural development in Egypt.