Kishida, El-Sisi discuss loan to improve Cairo’s public transportation

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi have discussed a loan of up to $732 million (100 billion yen) to support a new project named the Greater Cairo Metro Line.

Hiroshi Oka, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan to Egypt, and Rania Al-Mashat, minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, were also present at the meeting.

According to a statement from Japan’s foreign ministry, Egypt faces chronic traffic congestion because of an increase in population and automobile use.

The Egyptian government has been promoting the decentralization of the population in existing urban areas by constructing satellite cities with industrial and residential areas in the suburbs of the Cairo metropolitan area.

The expansion of these urban areas is impacting transportation between cities, making it urgent to improve the network, the statement said.

The project aims to alleviate increasing traffic congestion by building a new subway system in the southwestern part of the Cairo metropolitan area.

The terms of the loan include repayment over 40 years, with a 10-year grace period, and a 0.1 percent interest rate per annum.

In 2016, El-Sisi visited Japan and confirmed the possibility of future cooperation for the development of public transport in Egypt.