Egypt says it will support whatever is required to secure Saudi funding

Egypt says it will support whatever is required to secure Saudi funding

Cairo: Egypt said it’s willing to do whatever it takes to make Saudi Arabia feel at ease with increasing investment in the crisis-hit country, a move to secure funding that may be vital to arrest an economic decline. Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said the North African nation is “keen to support everything that is required to increase Saudi investments,” amid Egypt’s “unprecedented support for the local and foreign private sector,” according to a statement Friday. Saudi Arabia, a major financial backer of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, pledged a year ago to invest $10 billion in Egypt, which is facing a foreign-currency crunch. But so far, the Gulf region’s biggest economy has delivered only $1.3 billion, when a unit of its Public Investment Fund bought state-owned stakes in four Egyptian companies. The kingdom “has invested and is still investing in various development projects in Egypt,” Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan was quoted as saying in the same statement. Earlier in the week, he said Saudi Arabia’s track record of supporting Egypt speaks for itself. Saudi Arabia deposited $5 billion in Egypt’s central bank last year, though Al Jadaan said in Davos that his country is changing the way it offers financial