France To Fund New Trains For Egypt’s Metro

The Egyptian government signed a €344 million ($428.7 million) agreement on Sunday with France’s ambassador to Cairo to fund the purchase of sixty-four trains for the third and fourth metro lines.

The French government will provide Egypt with €172 million ($214.4 million) in a concessional loan to be repaid in 53 years with a 20 year grace period at an annual interest rate of 0.1 percent. The second half of the loan will come in the form of credit facilities by French credit company, Coface.

France has already funded the construction of Egypt’s three metro lines from 1979 to 2012, with loans amounting to around €1.2 billion, international cooperation minister, Naglaa El-Ahwany, said in a press release following the signing of the deal.

France’s net foreign direct investments in Egypt were $347.4 million in fiscal year 2013/14 while the volume of trade between the two countries was $3.1 billion in the same period, according to Egypt’s central bank.

Source: AlAhram Online