H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation and Governor of Egypt at the World Bank Group, met with Ousmane Dione, Vice President of the World Bank Group for the Middle East and North Africa, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of Arab financial institutions in 2024. This was in the presence Stephane Guimbert, World Bank Regional Director for Egypt, Djibouti and Yemen; Abdulaziz Al-Mulla, Executive Director of the World Bank Group; Sheikh Omar Sylla, Regional Director for North Africa of the International Finance Corporation, and Mark Ahern, Chief Economist at the World Bank’s Country Office in Egypt.
The Minister of International Cooperation welcomed the delegation of the World Bank Group, participating in the annual meetings of Arab financial institutions, participating in the meetings in the capacity of observer.
The Minister followed up on the cooperation programs being implemented with the World Bank Group, especially at the level of supporting the economic and structural reforms implemented by the state to enhance macroeconomic stability, stressing the government’s keenness to move forward with economic reform measures that would increase the empowerment of the private sector and stimulate the process of growth and overcoming the challenges facing the Egyptian economy.
H.E. stated that the development policy financing program, funded by the World Bank and other development partners, includes many important pillars related to enhancing competitiveness, improving the business environment, building the capacity of public finances to withstand shocks, and supporting the green transformation.
The meeting also witnessed the follow-up of the youthful discussions on the Climate Adapted Agricultural Food Transformation (CRAFT) project, within the “NWFE” programme, which resulted from the merger of the two projects on adapting crop production in the Nile Valley and the Delta and the project on establishing early warning systems.
In this regard, the Minister of International Cooperation explained the role played by the World Bank as a leading technical partner for implementing the CRAFT project, which achieves many development impacts, including enhancing crop productivity, increasing productivity by 10-15%, and supporting adaptive capacity in the Nile Valley and Delta, as well as establishing early warning units to improve forecasting systems and support services provided to farmers to hedge against the risks of climate change.
In a related context, the Minister of International Cooperation thanked the World Bank for the joint cooperation and technical support with national entities in order to prepare a draft law regulating state ownership in state-owned companies, which comes in light of the state’s efforts to implement the objectives of the state ownership policy document, governance of economic activities, and empowering the private sector.
For his part, the Vice President of the World Bank Group for the Middle East and North Africa region stressed the World Bank’s keenness to move forward in supporting the government’s efforts to empower the private sector, provide technical support for the “NWFE” program projects, and enhance economic and structural reform policies.
It is worth noting that the ongoing development cooperation portfolio between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the World Bank Group includes 13 projects worth $6.7 billion, in the fields of education, health, transportation, social protection, renewable energy, water desalination, housing, local development, and the environment.