Local Development Minister Adel Labib met on Thursday with World Bank (WB) Country Director for Egypt Asad Alam who assumed the duties of his post several days ago.

The meeting took up means of promoting cooperation between the WB and the Local Development Ministry.

Labib probed, during the get-together, the government's efforts exerted in the fields of supporting decentralization, developing poor villages and funding small enterprises.

The minister stressed the ministry's keenness on contacting development partners and boosting cooperation with them in these domains.

For his part, Alam expressed his pleasure for meeting the minister, underlining that the WB looks forward to cooperating with the ministry in various fields and offering international expertise for the ministry to benefit from it.

The two sides agreed on holding an expanded meeting after Eidul Fitr (Lesser Bairam) to discuss means of promoting joint cooperation in the in the arenas of rural development as well as developing the infrastructure and social services offered in poor villages.