The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, met with Dr. Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), at the headquarters of the Ministry of International Cooperation in the New Administrative Capital.
At the outset of the meeting, Al-Mashat welcomed the IsDB President on his visit to Egypt, stressing the Ministry of International Cooperation’s keenness to increase joint cooperation programs with the bank in the coming period. This is especially in light of the ambitious development plan implemented by the Government of Egypt, to accelerate sustainable development, in accordance with the SDGs.
The Minister confirmed that Egypt is one of the largest member countries benefiting from financing of the IsDB, as the total number of projects that the bank contributes amounts to 382, across several sectors, including electricity, energy, agriculture, irrigation, education, health, industry, mining, information and communications, with total funding
amounting to about $21 billion, with 332 projects completed and 50 projects underway.
The Minister referred to a number of cooperation activities with the IsDB, such as transportation projects, and many other projects, explaining in this context that the Bank’s support for the private sector will be published through the Private Sector Portal: Hub for Advisory, Finance and Investment For Enterprises, which seeks to introduce various forms of support from partners to the private sector. H.E. also expressed her appreciation for the Bank’s role in the context of its keenness to support projects in Egypt, which will contribute to reducing the financing gap; emphasizing the importance of cooperation with the IsDB in implementing many projects that have an environmental impact, within the framework of combating climate change.
H.E. Al-Mashat highlighted the IsDB’s interest in contributing to financing some of the NWFE program projects, such as the two projects, ‘Modernizing Irrigation Systems in Old Agricultural
Lands,’ to reduce water waste, increase crop productivity, and provide water to reclaim more land, and the ‘Water Desalination Using Solar Energy,’ which aims to launch 5 solar-powered water desalination plants in 4 governorates with a total capacity of 525 thousand cubic meters per day, rising to 1.75 million cubic meters per day by 2050. The project aims to provide clean water, and also promotes the green transformation; thus implementing the NDCs and Egypt’s Vision 2030. This is in addition to the project to “Enhancing Resilience in Vulnerable Areas”, which aims to increase the resilience of climate-vulnerable areas through specific interventions aimed at improving farmers’ livelihoods, in desert and remote areas such as (Oases, Al-Mughra, Sinai, and the south-eastern part of Egypt. ..etc.), and the people living in the aforementioned areas are also expected to benefit from the project (about 5 million people).
In this regard, Al-Mashat stressed that coordination is underway during the coming period to ho
ld meetings with development partners that have expressed interest in financing NWFE program projects to agree on the next steps for the projects and begin their implementation.
Al-Mashat also discussed with the IsDB the framework document for the strategic partnership that was signed between the Egyptian government and the Bank, which aims to harmonize the strategic plans of the Egyptian government and its development priorities in accordance with the 2030 sustainable development strategy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, as well as with the strategic directions for the Bank.
In this context, Al-Mashat said that this strategy is based on four main pillars, which are: Enhancing the efficiency of production elements with high added value, enhancing their sustainability, and quality economically and environmentally; Reducing regional disparities and economic exclusion by addressing rural poverty by building basic infrastructure and increasing farmers’ productivity, by supporting integrated rural development proj
ects; Developing and financing trade and supporting and developing the private sector, through financing and promoting trade, securing investment and export, and financing small and medium-sized companies; Capacity development through knowledge and experience exchange programmes, effective South-South cooperation and enhancement of financing services.
Al-Mashat referred to the signing of the amendment to the fifth framework agreement with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), on the sidelines of the 47th session of the annual meetings of the IsDB in Sharm El-Sheikh, which reflects the strategic relations between Egypt, the Bank, and the ITFC that strengthened the government’s efforts in providing basic goods.
Al-Mashat pointed to the role of the Ministry of International Cooperation, within the framework of the government’s vision, to strengthen economic cooperation relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and international and regional organizations through three principles of Eco
nomic Diplomacy; hosting multi-stakeholder platform meetings to enhance cooperation with multilateral and bilateral development partners, mapping official development assistance (ODA) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Global Partnerships Narrative which puts People at the Core, Projects in Action, and Purpose as the driver.
For his part, the President of the IsDB, Dr. Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, pointed to the growing partnership between the Bank and the Arab Republic of Egypt, stressing the Bank’s interest in participating in financing priority projects for the Egyptian government, in addition to crystallizing the cooperation that the Bank supports between Egypt and African countries within the Bank’s initiative to exchange knowledge and expertise and South-South Cooperation to benefit from Egypt’s expertise in various sectors.
The IsDB was established as an international financial institution in accordance with the founding agreement concluded in August 1974 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Th
e inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors was held in July 1975 and the bank officially began its activities in October 1975. In 1975 the bank transformed into a multi-entity group that reflected significant growth in the diversity and size of its operations in order to carry out multiple and diverse functions and meet the development needs of member states.
The Bank Group consists of five entities: the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Research and Training Institute, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit, and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, and the International Waqf Authority recently joined.
Source: State Information Service Egypt
