Betsy Nelson, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) vice president for risk and compliance and chief risk officer, has praised the bank’s successful partnership with Egypt.

The EBRD has chosen Egypt as a key state for the bank’s operations as a result of its success achievements on the economic level, she said, during a meeting with Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr in London.

Nelson said that Egypt’s infrastructure projects are a role model for the region, and that the EBRD is committed to boosting the country’s reform efforts and increasing its investments in the domestic market.

The EBRD’s investments in Egypt stand at around 5.3 billion euros over 99 projects, 58 percent of which are private sector.

More than 50 percent of the bank’s investments in Africa are in Egypt, with the remainder focused on Tunisia and Morocco.

“EBRD will expand its investments in the private sector in Egypt in the light of the economic reforms that Egypt has adopted which improved the investment climate, sent positive messages to investors, and stimulated international corporations to channel more funds to reinforce private sector in Egypt especially with the attractive investment climate that Egypt enjoys now,” Nelson said.

For her part, Nasr said that Egypt is looking forward to enhancing cooperation and partnership ties with the EBRD in the transport sector, including both the Cairo metro and on railways; on small and medium-sized enterprises; in the energy sector; and in increasing financing to the private sector.