The meeting looked into the role that the bank can play within the framework of strengthening economic relations between Egypt and the USA.
H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat: “Egypt is moving forward, while expanding and strengthening public-private partnerships, and enhancing private sector engagement.
The Minister of International Cooperation invited the Export-Import Bank of the United States to visit Egypt and get acquainted with the ongoing development efforts.
Egypt has a development financing portfolio that exceeds $26 billion, enhancing efforts to achieve the 2030 vision, and accelerating the transition to a green economy.
$4.7 billion has been secured in development financing for the private sector in the last 2 years.
The Minister of International Cooperation H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat met with Reta Jo Lewis, the President and Chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, during her participation in the 2022 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. The meeting took place alongside Minister of Finance H.E. Dr. Mohamed Maait and Egypt’s Ambassador to the US Motaz Zahran.
The meeting witnessed discussions on the joint cooperation between the Government of Egypt and the Bank, and the role it plays in strengthening trade and investment relations between Egypt and the USA. The Export-Import Bank of the United States financed projects for the private sector with over $5 billion from 2009 to 2019, showing that the bank can play a role in enhancing and financing the private sector to participate in development projects across sectors.
Al-Mashat invited Lewis to visit Egypt and see the development efforts made in infrastructure, and in implementing adaptation and mitigation projects, alongside the transition to a green economy. The Minister also invited Al-Mashat also invited the President and Chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States to participate in the second edition of the Egypt - International Cooperation Forum (Egypt - ICF).
The Minister stressed that the Government of Egypt is working to enhance private sector engagement; expanding its role in achieving sustainable development and encouraging local and foreign investments through economic and structural reforms that improve the business environments, all of which is key to achieving the 2030 UN SDGs.
Al-Mashat explained that the Ministry of International Cooperation is working with all international financing institutions and development banks, including the IMF, adding that at the end of December 2019 with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt launched multi-stakeholder engagement framework under the directives of H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, which includes hosting Multi-stakeholder Platforms, mapping the Official Development Assistance to the SDGs, and the Global Partnerships Narrative putting People at the Core, Projects in Action, and Purpose as the Driver.
The Minister stated that the objectives of the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Framework is to: maximize socio-economic returns from ODA, ensure the alignment of development interventions with national objectives as well as with the SDGs, and enhance the management of development cooperation for better implementation of development projects within Egypt.
Al-Mashat noted that Egypt has a large development cooperation portfolio amounting to about $26 billion covering 372 ongoing projects being implemented in various development sectors to enhance sustainable development efforts.
The meeting also looked into the ongoing discussions carried out by the Ministry of International Cooperation, on behalf of the government, with development partners to promote innovative financing, stimulate de-risking tools, encourage private sector participation in development, and enhance climate action. In the last 2 years, $4.7 billion has been secured in development financing for the private sector from multilateral and bilateral development partners.
Al-Mashat, who is also Governor of Egypt at the World Bank Group, is participating in the WBG and IMF Spring Meetings which are being held with physical participation for the first time after being virtually held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Held this April, the WBG & IMF Spring Meetings come at a time when development efforts in the world are facing unprecedented challenges due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, as well as the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains and inflation rates.
In her capacity as the Governor of Egypt at the WBG, one of Egypt’s largest development partners, Al-Mashat will participate in the meetings where she is scheduled to speak at a number of important events to discuss challenges facing developing and emerging countries.