Egypt to Let Investment Minister Mohieldin Take Position at World Bank

Egypt will allow Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin to leave his current position and assume a senior role at the World Bank, the government said.

Mohieldin “took an active role in the key economic reforms that have taken place in recent years,” the Cabinet said in a faxed statement today. “The Egyptian government welcomes his candidacy because it brings great respect to the country.”

His responsibilities as a managing director at the World Bank will include overseeing finance and private sector development, sustainable development, poverty reduction and economic management, human development and the World Bank Institute, the bank said in a statement. He will assume his new post on Oct. 4, the bank added.

Mohieldin is credited with helping boost economic growth and attracting $39 billion of foreign investment since he was appointed minister in 2004, according to the cabinet statement. Egypt, the most populous Arab country, expanded at an average rate of 7 percent in the three fiscal years through June 2008.

As minister, Mohieldin helped create a single regulator for the non-bank financial sector, build a stock market for small- and medium-sized companies, consolidate and liberalize the insurance business and produce the first Arabic code of Conduct for corporate governance, World Bank said.

“Mahmoud Mohieldin has proven himself a tireless reformer whose work on economic and financial reform helped Egypt weather the global financial crisis,” World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said in the bank’s statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abdel Latif Wahba in Cairo at alatifwahba@bloomberg.net

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