France to Invest 3.8 Billion Euros to Support Egypt’s Public Transport and Renewable Energy

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire signed agreements with Egypt on Sunday worth 3.8 billion euros to support public transport, renewable energy as well as social security and development, AFP reports.

The first tranche of the financing agreement, worth a total of 800 million euros financed by a loan from the Treasury, will be dedicated to support manufacturing operation company Alstom to supply 55 underground trains for Cairo Metro’s Line 1.

France is also willing to support 2 billion euros worth of bank loans for contracts with French companies working on Cairo’s metro, Le Maire said. This is in addition to investing 150 million euros to help reform Egypt’s health system and 12 million euros to restore a French university in Egypt.

Earlier today, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi explored avenues of cooperation with the Egyptian-French with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to boost French investments in Egypt, Ahram Online reports. It was attended by Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

In May, Egypt signed a deal with France to buy 30 French Rafale fighter jets from the French Dassault Aviation company, a statement by the Egyptian Armed Forces said.

In December, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi paid a visit to France, during which French President Emmanuel Macron said that the EU country’s arms sales to Egypt will not be conditioned on respecting human rights.

As a top partner in investment in renewable energy, the French Agency for Development (AFD) has provided EUR 800 mn in loans to Egypt’s renewable energy projects since 2007, and nearly EUR 400 mn in climate financing through credit lines to the banking sector since 2015, Enterprise reports.