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KFAED, Egypt sign KD 30 mln loan agreement for power grid project

CAIRO, Nov 23 (KUNA) -- The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and the Egyptian government have signed a loan agreement worth KD 30 million (about USD 98.7 million) to contribute to financing the Egypt-Saudi power grid project.
The agreement was signed by Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Sahar Nasr and KFAED's Director General Abdulwahab Al-Bader.
The project aims to exchange power between Egypt and Saudi Arabia at peak time and in emergency to improve the economy of operation and to support the stability of the two networks which are the major ones in southern the Mediterranean Sea.
The project contains three stations to evaluate the alternating current (AC) and turn it into a DC voltage of 500 KV in the Egyptian city of Bader and the Saudi cities of Tabuk and Madinah.
The total cost of the project is estimated at KD 519 million, including about KD 200 million (about 4.7 billion pounds) for the project established in Egypt.
The loan will be repaid in 40 semi-annual installments with an annual interest rate of two percent.
Egypt has received so far from KFAED about 40 loans to finance projects in different sectors.
The fund managed two grants worth KD 4.8 million (about USD 16.8 million) donated by Kuwait to rebuild schools affected by the earthquake that hit the country in 1992 and some towns harmed by heavy rains in 1995. (end) aff.hm