The Minister of International Cooperation H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat met with Mr. Johan Forssel, Swedish Minister of International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, at the Ministry's headquarters in the New Administrative Capital. The private sector on both sides, as well as strengthening relations with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

During the meeting, the Minister of International Cooperation stressed the importance of the close partnership between the Arab Republic of Egypt and Sweden, and the importance of strengthening joint relations to benefit from the Swedish experience in the field of development and to launch comprehensive partnerships that stimulate development priorities in Egypt. The meeting also touched on discussing joint cooperation in the field of waste management. Solid and food industries, machinery and equipment manufacturing, environmentally friendly technology promotion, health care and renewable energy.

Al-Mashat referred to the important role played by the private sector in stimulating Egypt's Vision 2030 and promoting comprehensive and sustainable growth, which confirms the importance of increasing the investments of Swedish private sector companies in Egypt, in a way that grows trade and investment relations between the two countries, adding that the Egyptian state is keen to overcome all problems, obstacles and opportunities to increase the investments of private sector companies in Egypt in various fields.

H.E. explained the government’s keenness to sustain development efforts by establishing social, environmental and governance standards and stimulating the transition to a green economy, through implementing smart projects that support climate action in development areas, including water and sustainable infrastructure, pointing to the necessity of international financing institutions. Bilateral development partners seek to strengthen partnerships with developing countries and emerging economies to enhance efforts to transition to a green economy through investments and concessional development financing.

The meeting touched on discussing the details of what has been accomplished within the framework of the NWFE program, a nexus of water, food and energy projects, and the steps taken to move forward towards mobilizing investments to implement projects for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in light of the National Climate Change Strategy 2050. In this regard, the meeting discussed ways to enhance joint cooperation between Egypt and Sweden. 

The meeting discussed multilateral cooperation between Sweden and the United Nations to implement development cooperation projects and programmes, through the provision of funding from the Swedish side and implementation by United Nations agencies and programmes, including the Decent Work Program for Women implemented by UN Women and the International Labor Organization.

For his part, the Swedish Minister of International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade stressed the importance of Swedish-Egyptian relations and his country’s keenness to expand the horizons of joint relations between the two countries and push the private sector towards more investments in Egypt.

It is worth noting that relations between Egypt and Sweden are characterized by diversity in many commercial, cultural and educational fields. Over the past two years, the Egyptian market has witnessed an increasing presence of Swedish companies, especially in the fields of electronics, medical equipment, and technology, and relations between Egypt and Sweden are regulated through a joint committee for economic, commercial and technical cooperation was established in 1975, supervised by the Ministry of International Cooperation, in addition to a joint business forum for businessmen from both sides.