CAIRO: Managing director of the World Bank Mahmoud Mohie Eddin said the bank is willing to fund a number of major projects in the Arab world, including projects linking electricity networks. At a press conference in the World Bank's Cairo office Saturday, Mohie Eddin said the bank is currently considering funding an electricity network linking the eastern countries of the Arab World, as well as projects linking Egypt with Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and possibly Ethiopia, and potential projects linking with the western countries of the Arab world. The bank will not fund nuclear power plants as these do not fall within the bank's funding policies, which are limited to renewable energy projects such as wind and solar power, said Mohie Eddin. He further said new policies are needed to tackle poverty, including short term policies such as the subsidizing of essential goods for low income citizens and establishing projects that serve the public such as projects involving water and electricity infrastructure. Countries that have succeeded in eradicating poverty have done so through their development policies. Abu Dhabi's Al Maskari Holding is behind a $3 billion project to build an integrated “energy hub” in Libya and to develop an undersea cable for exporting solar energy.
