President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Monday the importance of combating poverty and providing basic services for people in needy areas.

El-Sisi’s remarks came during his meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and International Cooperation Minister Rania El-Mashat, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

The president called for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises for their role in generating jobs for youth.

He also stressed the importance of programmes planned to empower women, and called for boosting partnerships with the private sector on that score.

The meeting reviewed the international cooperation ministry’s future strategy, which is based on cooperation with international financial institutions to support the state’s development and economic efforts.

El-Sisi directed the attendees to ensure the best use of funds offered by international institutions, to achieve the sustainable development goals in various sectors.

The president urged officials to find ways to find the best financial alternatives in terms of conditions and competitive advantages of each financial institution.

Meanwhile, El-Mashat reviewed the ministry’s current and future strategy, which is based on formulating an institutional framework to determine the financing gap, set an external borrowing ceiling and maintain the state’s financial solvency.

The strategy includes increasing technical cooperation with development partners, promoting the private sector’s participation in Egyptian development projects, and boosting women’s role in the development process.

The minister briefed El-Sisi on projects being constructed,  and which were funded by soft loans in 2019 and established in cooperation with 26 development partners under 301 cooperation agreements to serve 20 sectors.

The ministry seeks to cooperate with international development partners in the socio-economic development domain, El-Mashat pointed out.