Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt has signed a preliminary agreement with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) late Thursday to finance the first phase of a project to establish a desalination plant in Port Said Governorate.

The agreement comes under the framework of negotiations to finance the plant in Sharq at Tafriah at a preliminary cost of $211 million, a statement by the Ministry of International Cooperation revealed on Saturday.

The project, which will up 150,000 cubic metres of water per day, aims to provide water to new residential communities as well as the industrial zone that will be established in the governorate, the statement added.

The financing agreement is part of a bundle of finances provided by KFAED, totalling $900 million over a three-year period, that will be used to fund a number of projects in the Sinai Peninsula.