Briefs

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School funds

FAYZA Abul-Naga, minister of international cooperation, has signed an agreement aimed at financing Egypt's Early Childhood Education Enhancement Programme. According to the agreement, signed with Abul-Naga's Canadian counterpart in Ottawa last week, Canada will provide $15 million for the programme and Egypt $50 million, half of the programme's cost. The World Bank is expected to contribute $20 and the World Food Programme will contribute $16.5 for providing hot meals for kindergarten children.

The total required cost is estimated at $103 million to take in 30 per cent of such children between 2005 and 2010.

The Early Childhood Education Programme contributes towards breaking the poverty cycle as Egypt seeks to boost kindergarten capacity to take in 60 per cent of all preschool children by 2015. Approximately 300,000 children, half of whom are from the poorest and most deprived areas, are to benefit.

The Egyptian initiative aims at developing and enhancing the efficiency of early childhood education over a five-year period by building and developing 3,000 kindergartens in all Egyptian governorates.

At a recent session of the Canadian House of Commons, members of parliament of the liberal opposition compared Egypt's attempts to increase self-expenditure resources in collaboration with its partners in development, and Canada's attempt to reduce its early education budget.

The Canadian government announced that resources allocated for children would be increased.

Promise kept

MEASURES are being taken to build the 1,000 factories promised in President Mubarak's electoral campaign last year. This week the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) in cooperation with the Industry Modernisation Centre (IMC) and the banking sector signed a five-year joint plan in which the banking sector will provide LE75 billion to finance the new factories and the needed expansion of existing factories.

Rachid Mohamed Rachid, minister of trade and industry, had presented a report to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif explaining the industrial policy during the coming period which aims at raising the industrial growth rate from five to nine per cent. The plan also seeks to provide 1.5 million job opportunities by 2011. According to Rachid's report, 113 factories are expected to be set up during the 2006/2007 fiscal year. Ninety factories were built last year.