Egypt is set to sign a financing agreement with the World Bank worth $500m, according to a statement from the World Bank’s vice president Hafez Ghanem

The agreement will be signed on the sidelines of the World Bank Annual Meeting currently being held in Washington.

It is understood that the agreement, which will be finalised today 6 October, will be earmarked for the Upper Egypt Local Development Programme.

The Upper Egypt Local Development Programme is an infrastructure development initiative aimed at supporting the Qena and Sohag governorates in southern Egypt.

The funds are part of the bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2015–2019, which is set to provide about $8bn to support Egypt’s economy.

In August Egypt finalised a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a $12bn loan. Cairo also recently received the first $1bn installment of a $3bn loan from the World Bank. Further to this, Cairo is understood to be looking towards China and Saudi Arabia for further funding to plug the $6bn finance gap required to qualify for the IMF loan, which is expected by the end of this year.

Egypt’s foreign reserves have witnessed a drastic decline over the past few years as revenues from tourism, the Suez Canal and foreign investment fall. Foreign reserves exceeded $30bn in 2011, compared with $16.6bn in August this year.