● Al-Mashat: The new platform aligns with what H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt called for, which is the necessity of achieving the required investment in Africa’s infrastructure with the help of the people of the continent and its companies.
● Al-Mashat: The new platform is a strategic response to address the financing, information and skills gaps on the African continent to enhance investments in infrastructure.
● Al-Mashat announced linking the Electronic Platform for Engineering, Procurement and Construction to the Ministry of International Cooperation’s Private Sector Engagement portal.
● Al-Mashat called on development partners to provide more support and assistance to African companies through concessional financing and innovative mechanisms for implementing infrastructure projects.
The third edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair was held in Cairo under the patronage of H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, where the Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, and the President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Benedict Oramah, launched the Electronic Platform for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC).
In her speech, Al-Mashat stressed the importance of the EPC platform and its impact on achieving Africa’s sustainable development agenda. The platform is set to enhance the participation of African companies in infrastructure projects, provide more investment opportunities, and facilitate the process of exchanging information. This was a response to the demands of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as well as other leaders in the African continent to expand the scope of partnerships and agreements to advance growth in the engineering, construction and procurement sectors, and in turn, achieve the required investment in Africa’s infrastructure.
H.E. added that from this standpoint, the platform comes as a strategic and effective response to address three pivotal gaps that hinder benefiting from the African continent’s potential, which are; the financing gap, information gap and skills gap, especially since the infrastructure financing gap on the continent is estimated at about $170 billion annually.
H.E. stated that the EPC platform works to 1) address the financing gap by enhancing international cooperation and attracting investments in the field of infrastructure, and 2) bridge the information gap, by enhancing transparent communication between governments, the private sector, and international development partners, and 3) address the skills gap by providing technical support, capacity building and skills development to build a skilled workforce.
Al-Mashat continued, "There is no doubt that these efforts will not be completed except through cooperation and coordination between the various parties and the involvement of the private sector. In this regard, the Arab Republic of Egypt is keen to increase the participation of the private sector in development efforts and link it to all financing and investment opportunities and technical support provided by multilateral and bilateral development partners.”
Al-Mashat announced that the EPC platform will be linked to the Ministry of International Cooperation’s private-sector participation portal.
At the end of her speech, Al-Mashat thanked the President of Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah for the efforts made in launching the EPC platform and the bank’s contribution to supporting the activity of engineering and contracting companies in Africa with contracts worth more than $12 billion in the past five years.
H.E. also called on international development partners to provide more support and assistance to African companies to provide easy and low-cost development financing, more innovative mechanisms, and the technical support necessary to implement infrastructure and green projects in the African continent.