Cairo, March 18, 2015

Exchange Notes of Japanese Soft Loan Project
“The Project of Construction of the New Dirout Group of Regulators”

On 14th March, 2015, Mr. Takehiro Kagawa, Ambassador of Japan to Egypt and H.E. Dr. Naglaa El Ehwany, Minister of International Cooperation signed the Exchange of Notes of soft loan for “The Project for Construction of the New Dirout Group of Regulators”, which extends the loan up to the amount of 5,854,000,000 yen (Approx. US$ 49,000,000) in the presence of Mr. Kentaro Sonoura, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan on the occasion of the Egypt Economic Development Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. At the same time, Mr. Masakazu Ichikawa, Vice-President of JICA and H.E. Dr. Hossam Al Moghazy, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation signed a Loan Agreement of this project.

This project will construct new regulators for the canal in Dirout City in replacement of the old regulators (*1) to strengthen water management system and enhance more efficient use of water, in order to improve agricultural production in Upper Egypt, utilizing the Japanese superior technology, which is applied Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP*2) on the request of Egyptian Government. It will use the technique that does not stop the water flow during the construction of the new regulators.

(*1)The Dirout group of regulators are one of the important irrigation facilities which provide 9.6 billion m3 of irrigation water, or 17% of annual available water use of the Nile river, for about 600 thousand hectare farmland.
(*2)STEP is one of the soft loan schemes for technical transfer to the recipient countries through best use of advanced technologies and know-how of Japanese firms. The principle conditions of the loan are following;
- The rate of interest: 0.1% per annum (the rate of interest of the part of the consultants of the project: 0.01% per annum)
- The repayment period: 30 years after the grace period of 10 years

The Government of Japan extended grant aid for rehabilitation irrigation and drainage system since 1995 to enhance more efficient use of water in Egypt. This project will mark the final stage of the comprehensive rehabilitation of the Bahr Yusef Canal which consists of Lahoun regulator, Mazoura regulator, Sakuoula regulator, Monshat El Dahab regulator and Dirout group of regulators.

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