Since 2014, Egypt has adopted policies to engage in regional and international partnerships and to open up to all kinds of financing from global financial institutions to provide the required liquidity for mega projects, backing the private sector, and strengthening ties with these institutions.

These policies have boosted Egypt’s net international reserves (NIRs), which had inched up to more than $45 billion in February 2020 before the COVID-19 outbreak hit the country.

According to data from international institutions, 329 implemented and ongoing projects have been financed by 21 governments and international institutions across the world from July 2014 to May 2020 in 16 sectors, with investments close to $30 billion.

Enabling Egypt to be an active global player and meeting the ambition of Egyptians to improve the efficiency of basic services are key objectives of Egypt’s National Vision 2030. Furthermore, Egypt’s sustainable development agenda constitutes a priority for the government for the sake of bringing about the prosperity of the people and pushing the national economy forward.

In this regard, by 2030, Egypt targets to be among the top 30 countries in terms of the size of the economy, anti-corruption, market competitiveness, quality of life and human development.

Accordingly, Egypt has tended to make use of the financial facilities introduced by the remarkable global financial institutions to finance projects that enable the country to achieve its agenda.

In this context, Egypt has adopted an economic reform programme which was financed by a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through a three-year extended agreement under the EFF facility from November 2016 to July 2019.

The sums were provided to address the imbalances in the Egyptian economy, tackle the distortions of the economy, and to improve the macroeconomic indices after years of political and economic unrest.

By the end of the programme in July 2019, the IMF said in its fifth and last review of the programme that Egypt had succeeded in achieving its programme’s objectives, adding that Egypt’s macroeconomic situation had improved significantly since 2016.

Over the last three years, the authorities have carried out an ambitious home-grown reform program that aimed to correct large external and domestic imbalance and promote inclusive growth and job creation. Critical macroeconomic reforms implemented under the program have been successful in achieving macroeconomic stabilisation, a recovery in growth and employment, and putting public debt on a clearly declining trajectory. Fiscal savings have been partly utilised to ease the burden of adjustment on the poor, according to the IMF review.

Based on this, the IMF Executive Board has not hesitated to approve the new request for Egypt to get a new $2.77 billion loan under the rapid finance instrument (RFI) to tackle the COVID-19 crisis’ repercussions and maintain the gains of its economic reform programme, which reflects the IMF’s trust in the Egyptian economy.

The cooperation with the IMF is an example of Egypt’s cooperation with other financial institutions that trust the Egyptian economy and do not hesitate to extend all facilities to it.

In this regard, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said that the stability of the economy that Egypt sought over the past four years encourages the financial institutions to work hand-in-hand with Egypt, and their extended facilities reflect their trust in the Egyptian economy in absorbing shocks and dealing with external challenges like the COVID-19 crisis.

Such a solid base of international cooperation has paved the way for Egypt to make use of more facilities in its fight against the COVID-19 crisis, given that 100 financial institutions have announced they will stand with Egypt in containing the pandemic’s implications and maintain its economic reform programme’s achievements.

These institutions include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the IMF, the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), USAID, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), UNDP, and others, in addition to the governments of Switzerland, Sweden, Japan and South Korea.

For the sake of enhancing these ties, the Ministry of International Cooperation has launched a new global partnership narrative (P&P&P.. People, Projects and Purpose) with a special focus on backing the private, small and medium-sized enterprises sectors, the key engines of the Egyptian economy, amid the crisis.

The new narrative, which was praised by the international institutions, aims at achieving sustainable development through leveraging partnerships in priority sectors.

The three main pillars of this narrative are P&P&P: People at the Core, Projects in Action and Purpose as the Drive.

Another important form of inclusive partnerships in promoting sustainable development is Public Private Partnerships, which contributes to identifying existing gaps, especially following COVID-19, and provides assistance across various sectors to millions of beneficiaries, thus enabling citizens to unleash their full power, according to the narrative.

In an exclusive interview published on Ahram Online in May, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat said that P&P&P is a way to make sure that Egypt is always on message, and that it collaborates in an effective and transparent manner.

“We have also initiated a sustainable development goals (SDG) Mapping Framework that outlines the approach for SDG mapping, in line with the UN Official Global Indicator Framework.”

“This mapping exercise will lead to a consistent approach across all development partners, which is expected to contribute to a stronger narrative and result in effectively capturing and measuring the goals,” Al-Mashat told Ahram Online.

Collectivism plays an indispensable role in the COVID-19 fight, with multilateralism providing a platform for shared experiences, technical assistance and partnerships in launching and executing the projects.

No country nor institution has the ultimate solution to COVID-19. It is through effective cooperation that we can progress towards a better future that serves the people, Al-Mashat said.