CAIRO — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates will deposit $10 billion in Egypt before the country holds an investment conference in March, the news website Al-Youm Al-Sabea reported Wednesday. Egypt hopes the conference in the resort Sharm El-Sheikh will generate ventures worth billions of dollars, helping to boost its economy, which has just started to recover from political turmoil triggered by the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates gave Egypt more than $12 billion in aid, deposits for the central bank and petroleum products since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has focused on trying to repair Egypt's economy, enacting reforms to try and win over foreign investors and announcing mega-projects such as a second Suez Canal to create jobs. Egypt can expect economic growth "easily north of 4 percent" in fiscal year 2014-15, which ends in June, boosted by rising confidence and a windfall from lower oil prices, its finance minister said last month. Meanwhile, Egypt is negotiating with an African bank for a loan that it hopes would boost its exports to countries of the continent, the Trade and Industry Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the statement, Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said negotiations were underway with the African Export-Import Bank for obtaining a loan worth of $500 million designed to facilitate and boost the flow of Egyptian exports to African markets, as well as supporting projects Egypt implements at the bank's member states. His statements came during a meeting with representatives from the 37-member bank which was established in 1993. The minister noted that the bank has, over the past few years, backed the commercial sector in Egypt with credit lines and risk guarantees, with a total of accumulative loans worth of $577 million for Egyptian companies between 2012 and 2014. He also pointed that the bank facilitated Egypt's exports' access to at least 15 African countries. — Agencies
