WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 19 -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has approved a loan of up to US$10 million to the Al Keena Hygienic Paper Mill Co. Ltd., a new company that will build and operate a tissue paper mill in the town of Giza, near Amman, in Jordan. The mill will produce 30,000 tons of tissue paper annually from imported pulp and waste paper and sell it for conversion into facial tissue, diapers, and handkerchiefs. Seventy percent of the mill's output is expected to be sold to the project sponsor's tissue converting plants in Jordan and elsewhere in the region. The total cost of the project is US$29.7 million. The mill will comply with strict World Bank environmental guidelines and will mix pulp with quality waste paper to produce a variety of tissue paper grades. "The project will take advantage of the profitable and rapidly expanding tissue paper market in the Middle East and also contribute to increasing the supply of higher quality tissue paper in Jordan," said Mr. André Hovaguimian, Di
rector of IFC's Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa Department. The Al Keena Hygienic Paper Mill Co. Ltd. is privately owned by the Nuqul Group, a prominent Jordanian industrial group whose principal activity is the conversion of tissue paper. IFC has worked before with the Nuqul Group. In 1990, in Egypt, IFC helped to finance the Al Bardi Paper Mill Co., a similar project to Al Keena. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries.
