This came during the participation of the Minister of International Cooperation in the annual meetings of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Egypt was chosen as the top investment market for the second year in a row for 2021-2025, based on three objectives: reducing carbon emissions to promote environmental sustainability, promote equal opportunities for women, and digital transformation. Minister of International Cooperation praised the strategic partnership between Egypt and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, explaining that the bank’s investments last year amounted to around 1.2 billion euros in 23 projects, of which 80% were for the private sector, which reflects the role played by the Ministry of International Cooperation to coordinate with multiple development partners and bilateral partners to strengthen economic cooperation and support the private sector as well as civil society. She added that investments focus on meeting the targets of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which also reflect the state's development priorities, namely environmental sustainability, renewable energy, infrastructure, small and medium enterprises, as well as women's economic empowerment. Al-Mashat said that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that international cooperation delivers impactful results for the development of Egypt, referring to the positive economic indicators for Egypt despite the woes of the pandemic, as the bank’s recent report revealed that it is expected to grow by 2% in 2020 and rise to 5% next year, making it the only economy in the region to escape a recession for this year. The minister added that there are still countless of opportunities to capture the silver lining amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as Egypt provides for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development the gateway to a large potential market in Africa to support infrastructure financing and accelerate recovery. On Thursday, there will be a voting to choose a new president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the next 4 years, following the end of Sir Suma Chakrabarti, who was the sixth president of the EBRD. Overall, EBRD has invested more than 6.5 billion euros in more than 116 projects in Egypt in various sectors, the most important of which are infrastructure, small and medium enterprises, and renewable energy.