World Bank Group President commends Egypt’s economic reforms and the launch of national investment-stimulating platforms
Al-Mashat calls on the World Bank to develop models for economic growth to support developing countries
Leveraging the Bank’s diagnostic reports and analytical tools to formulate evidence-based development policies and drive growth.
Workshops to introduce the business community and national entities to the World Bank’s “One Guarantee Platform”
The meeting discussed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) strategy, industrial development and the Joint Capital Market Development Program (JCAP).
Al-Mashat welcomes the evolution of the World Bank Group and Affiliate Institutions
During the annual meetings of the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation and Governor of Egypt at the World Bank, held an extensive discussion session with Mr. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, with the participation of Mr. Ousmane Dionne, Vice President of the Bank for the Middle East and North Africa, and Mr. Sergio Pimenta, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The meeting witnessed extensive discussions on the latest developments in cooperation between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the World Bank, one of the largest multilateral development banks.
At the onset of the meeting, the President of the World Bank Group welcomed H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat during her participation in the Bank's annual meetings in Washington. He also applauded the ongoing and close partnership with Egypt, which is one of the largest countries of operations and a leading country in partnership with the World Bank Group and its affiliated institutions.
The President of the World Bank Group also commended the various reforms undertaken by the Egyptian government to achieve development and address internal and external challenges. He also addressed the constructive steps taken by the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation to launch country -owned platforms that have a positive impact on encouraging investment and stimulating climate action, such as the “NWFE” platform, which promotes climate investment in mitigation and adaptation, in addition to the Hub for Advisory, Finance & Investment for Enterprises platform to empower the private sector.
For her part, the Minister thanked Mr. Ajay Banga for his support for the partnership with Egypt, noting the government's keenness to advance joint relations with the World Bank in order to enhance development efforts, bridge development financing gaps, and benefit from the technical support and diagnostic studies provided by the Bank in various sectors to drive growth and increase development rates in light of the enormous challenges facing the world and the Middle East region.
H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat reviewed the framework of the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, which aims to achieve sustainable economic growth, through designing a comprehensive strategy for economic development, based on evidence based and data-driven policies to address development gaps in various sectors, and mobilize domestic and foreign funding to achieve sustainable development through an integrated national framework for funding enhances the allocation of resources to priority sectors, stimulates private sector investments, and accelerates progress towards achieving development goals, affirming the ministry's keenness to collaborate with the bank to benefit from its data analysis potential and preparing studies to drive growth rates in Egypt and formulate evidence-based policies. H.E. also called on the World Bank to develop economic growth models based on forecasting and data analysis to develop economic policies that drive growth in emerging and developing economies.
The meeting also addressed the partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) to support efforts to empower the sector in Egypt. In this regard, the Minister pointed out the importance of creating innovative partnerships between the two institutions and other international institutions in Egypt in order to strengthen efforts to provide financing mechanisms for the private sector.
During the meeting, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat emphasized that progress in restructuring the global financial system has become an urgent necessity to confront development challenges and successive crises that affect the entire world, particularly emerging and developing economies, noting that developing the World Bank Group is one of the important pillars for activating the structuring of the global financial system, and that the steps taken so far in terms of launching a guarantee platform and launching the trust fund for the grant facility allocated for preparing projects are good developments in this regard, and must be built upon to achieve further progress.
With regard to the “One Guarantee Platform” launched by the World Bank Group, the two sides discussed organizing a workshop with the participation of various stakeholders in Egypt, in order to introduce the platform, its importance, and benefit from the tools it provides to the private sector.
Al-Mashat explained that restructuring of the global financial system requires the innovation of new and unconventional tools, such as financing development policies, for example, issuing guarantees to stimulate development policies. The minister also discussed the bank’s efforts to support debt restructuring in developing countries and emerging markets, explaining that the fourth conference on financing development in Spain fostered ongoing discussions on structuring the global financial architecture.
The two sides discussed future projects at the level of financing development policies, and governance of state owned enterprises. They also discussed the Joint Capital Market Program (J-CAP) implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 18 countries around the world to discuss the proposed pillars for joint cooperation to develop the capital market in Egypt.
In another context, the World Bank President spoke about the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs launched by the World Bank last August to develop implementable policies and programs to enhance employment and address the lack of job opportunities in the countries of the South. In this context, the Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation highlighted the importance of this council and the possibility of enhancing cooperation and integration with the initiatives launched by the Ministry in this regard, such as the "Shabab Balad" initiative.
The Minister also referred to the partnership with the bank by providing technical support and soft financing for the projects of the country platform of the “NWFE” program. They also covered the ongoing discussions on completing the national strategy for foreign direct investment (FDI) that is being prepared with GAFI and the relevant entities, as well as the industry strategy.
It is worth noting that the current portfolio between Egypt and the World Bank includes 12 projects worth $5.5 billion, in various sectors such as education, health, transportation, social solidarity, housing and sanitation, local development, private sector promotion, finance and environment.