The Foreign Ministry launched a two-year regional plan to support refugees in Egypt and other host countries at a conference yesterday, Al Mal reports. The plan focuses on improving refugees’ access to public services and would support host countries in meeting food, healthcare, education, and housing requirements. There are currently 120k Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR, 52% of whom are children, UNHCR representative Karim Atassi said at the conference, the newspaper reports. The program comes as Egypt is looking to ink a Turkey-style agreement with the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed for USD 500 mn in new aid for Egypt and promised additional aid to help thwart migration during her state visit to Cairo last month.

This comes as the EU is looking into ways to bring back government-issued school meals, for which the EU provided EUR 60 mn in funding, Deputy Head of the EU delegation to Egypt Reinhold Brender tells Al Mal. Cabinet had decided last week to suspend the meal program for the remainder of the academic year following a series of food poisoning incidents that affected hundreds of students across the country.

The Social Fund for Development (SFD) is in talks with the World Bank to receive USD 200 mn to fund labor-intensive projects, SFD head Nevine Gamea said, Al Ahram reports. Gamea’s statement came after meeting World Bank Group’s Vice President for Human Development Keith Hansen in Aswan to follow up on ongoing projects funded by the bank.

Egyptian seats on the Joint Egyptian-Sudanese Business Council have been filled and announced by Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil, Al Masry al Youm reports. The Egyptian side will be headed by Eva Pharma CEO Riad Armanious. The timing is probably to ease trade tensions, as the two countries have been in talks over the import ban of a number of Egyptian products.