France and Egypt’s financing portfolio expanded yesterday as France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that France will be providing new financing worth €1.8 billion.

The agreements signed between the two countries include support for public transport, renewable energy as well as social security and development.

The financing will be distributed between €776 million from the French government and €990 million from the French Development Agency. The projects include the rehabilitation of the Mansoura-Damietta railway, and the supply of 55 trains for the first line of the metro.

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

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnessed the signing of several cooperation deals between Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir, and Le Maire.

This is in addition to investing €150 million to help reform Egypt’s health system and €12 million to restore a French university in Egypt.

Le Maire also revealed that an additional €2bn of state-guaranteed loans will be negotiated in the next six months, which will be used to establish the Cairo Metro’s Line 6.

“Egypt has become a strategic economic partner of France … It is the top country in terms of loans from the [French] Treasury,” Le Maire said.

An important partner in renewable energy investments, the French Agency for Development (AFD) has provided €800 million in loans to Egypt’s renewable energy projects since 2007, and nearly €400 million in climate financing through credit lines to the banking sector since 2015.