Meeting with President of the EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso, Al-Mashat emphasized the government’s support for the EBRD’s strategy that is aimed at combating climate change and promoting a green economy
President of the EBRD Odile Renaud-Basso and MOIC Minister Rania Al Mashat during Renaud-Basso's first visit to Egypt - April 2021
Photo - President of the EBRD Odile Renaud-Basso and MOIC Minister Rania Al Mashat during Renaud-Basso's first visit to Egypt - April 2021
“Egypt is transitioning towards a green economy, as we have strong partnership opportunities with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),” stated Minister of International Cooperation (MoIC) Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat earlier today.
Highlighting that there are many opportunities to partner with the EBRD to implement climate change projects in Egypt and mitigate their impacts, she added that these represent an important part of Egypt's development vision 2030.
Meeting with President of the EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso, Al-Mashat emphasized the government’s support for the EBRD’s strategy that is aimed at combating climate change and promoting a green economy.
She added that Egypt is taking extensive measures to achieve a green and sustainable recovery by developing strategies to both combat and mitigate the impact of climate change.
The meeting was to discuss areas of joint cooperation within the framework of the bank’s new 2021-2025 strategy and to evaluate proposed topics for annual meetings that will begin towards the end of June.
This comes within the framework of the Ministry of International Cooperation's quest to develop and strengthen economic cooperation relations with bilateral and bilateral development partners, follow-up on the ongoing project portfolio, and ongoing coordination between relevant parties, to ensure the desired results of projects undertaken with development partners.
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Approved in EBRD’s October annual meeting, the bank’s 2021-2025 strategy is based on three pillars, wrote a MoIC statement.
The first is supporting the transition to a green economy and promoting environmental sustainability, with the second promoting equal opportunity through access to skills and employment for women and young people, and finally accelerating digital transition.
Renaud-Basso shared that the EBRD is supporting countries as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating that the bank is interested in expanding its efforts to Africa in the coming period.
In light of the EBRD’s efforts in Africa, Al-Mashat shared that Egypt is one of the bank’s largest countries of operation as this allows for strategic relations with countries across the African continent.
In April 2021, Al-Mashat met with Renaud-Basso in her first visit to the region since her election in October 2020. During the visit, two memorandums of understanding and a development financing agreement were signed to support the Government of Egypt and the private sector’s transition to a green economy.
In 2020, Egypt was the EBRD’s largest country of operations in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, accounting for more than €1 billion financing 21 projects; 47 percent of the bank’s total investments in the region. Egypt was also the largest country of operations for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019.
The current portfolio of cooperation between Egypt and the EBRD amounts to $1.3 billion. Since 2012, the EBRD has invested over €7.2 billion to implement 127 projects.
