A $500 million Local Development Program for Upper Egypt was launched Sunday, said World Bank Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti Assad Allam.

Primarily funded by the World Bank, the program aims to improve the business environment for private sector development, to strengthen local government capacity for quality infrastructure and service delivery in select governorates in Upper Egypt and to create more sustainable jobs, Allam said.

The program will focus on the Upper Egyptian cities of Qena and Sohag, Allam noted. 

The program comes within the framework of the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2015–2019, which provides about $8 billion for supporting Egypt's economy.

The launch of the program was in the presence of Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, Egyptian Minister of Trade Tareq Qabil and Mirza Hassan, the Executive Director for Egypt and the Arab Group at the World Bank.

The World Bank finances programs and projects to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity for the people of Egypt through investments in key sectors including social safety nets, energy, transport, water and sanitation, agriculture and irrigation, social housing, primary health care, as well as supporting employment-intensive projects and financing for micro- and small enterprises.

The current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 25 projects for a total commitment of about $7.5 billion.