Bringing innovation to the fight against climate, Egypt’s COP27 plans to position startups as a key partner in creating an open culture for innovation, particularly in solar energy, wind power, electric cars, and green technologies that reduce emissions.
Reflecting this, the Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, held a meeting with Google and Meta officials to explore cooperation in enhancing the role of startups to combat climate change in light of the COP27 summit.
The Minister held a meeting with Hisham Al-Nazer, Office Director of Google Egypt, and Martin Roeske, Google’s Head of Government Relations and Public Policies for the Middle East and North Africa, in the presence of Maha Afifi, Director of Government Relations at Google, and Tamer Taha, Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation for digitalization and entrepreneurship, and representatives of the Muharram & Partners consulting firm.
During the meeting, the Minister discussed with Google officials prospects for cooperation during the "Youth Day" activities of COP27, and highlighted the role played by the Ministry to support entrepreneurship and innovation efforts through development finance.
The Minister also held a meeting with Carlos Ahumada, Meta’s Director of Public Policy and Data for the Middle East and North Africa, Nadia Diab, Head of Instagram's Public Policy in MENA, Ahmed Shehada, Head of Government and Non-Profit Institutions in the Middle East and North Africa, and Tamer Taha, Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation for digitalization and entrepreneurship, and representatives of Muharram & Partners consulting firm.
The Minister noted that Egypt is uniquely positioned as a regional hub in the Middle East and Africa for start-ups and entrepreneurship, with many recent measures taken by the government to create an enabling environment for startups to be established through digital registration and tax exemptions.
Entrepreneurs in Egypt are now able to formally register their business through a “digital notification” platform to eliminate all obstacles facing start-ups and entrepreneurs. Egypt will also allow the formal establishment of virtual companies, without the need for a physical headquarters to cut costs on renting.
Egypt’s startup sector has been on a rapid rise over the past years, culminating in an all-time high funding volume of EGP 8.9 billion (USD 491 million) in Magnitt’s 2021 Egypt Venture Investment Report.
In 2022, Egypt’s Swvl debuted in the United States’ Nasdaq stock market as the first-ever Middle Eastern unicorn (start-up with a valuation higher than USD 1 billion).
The Ministry of International Cooperation's ongoing portfolio includes about $1 billion to implement 36 projects in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship provided by 16 development partners.
In the same vein, the Minister held a meeting with Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President of the African Export-Import Bank, in the presence of Oluranti Doherty, Director of Export Development and Climate Finance at the Bank, Yousef Bishai, Director of Advisory and Capital Markets, and Ayman El Zoghbi, Head of Trade and Finance companies.
The Minister spoke about the NWFE Program, which aims to finance projects that are integrated between water, food and energy, in line with both the National Strategy for Climate Change 2050 and Egypt’s 2030 Vision. This comes within the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) with the Development Partners Groups (DPG), held in partnership between the Ministry of International Cooperation and the United Nations office in Egypt, under the title “Climate Change: Strengthening Partnerships & Strategic Dialogue on Equitable & Sustainable Climate Finance”.
Bringing together development partners, international financial institutions, multilateral development banks, as well as the private sector, the NWFE program creates a framework to channel financing towards water-food-energy projects, as they are of paramount importance to overcoming the repercussions of climate change and preserving the environment, and is an example of how to transform global pledges into implementation in emerging economies.