Al-Mashat said that this meeting comes within the country-led engagement framework held by the ministry with multilateral and bilateral development partners to periodically follow up on the progress of ongoing partnerships and strategies.

This is in line with presidential directives to optimise the value of development cooperation at social-environmental and financial-economic levels by bolstering Egypt’s economic and sustainable development, enhancing the role of the private sector, as well as improving infrastructure and investing in human capital through the Decent Life Presidential Initiative.

She added that her ministry is stepping up the role of private sector finance to drive climate action throughout the country with blended finances.

Furthermore, the meeting discussed future roadmaps between Egypt and MIGA to promote the private sector in development through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, as well as preparations for the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR), which will help Egypt align climate action and development.

In light of Egypt’s preparations to host the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) — which is set to be held in November in Sharm El-Sheikh — the meeting discussed cooperation with the World Bank in this respect, which includes financing for climate action, enhancing technical support and spurring knowledge exchange, in addition to organising events and activities that push towards the integration of climate action with all sustainable development goals (SDGs).

For her part, Ayat Soliman — the Regional Director for the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department for the Middle East and North Africa — noted that there are ongoing consultations between all technical teams from the World Bank, the ministry, and other relevant authorities to coordinate priorities in order to ensure complementarity among national and global goals.

Meanwhile, Senior Investment Guarantee Officer at MIGA Layali Abdeen pointed out that MIGA held meetings with private sector companies to boost partnerships and unlock opportunities for the private sector to participate in development projects, with one success story being the Benban Solar Park in Upper Egypt, which involved a hundred Egyptian private companies and created around 640 jobs besides 18,000 temporary ones.

Egypt’s development cooperation portfolio with the World Bank amounts to a total of $5.5 billion across 15 projects in several sectors, including transportation, education, housing, health, social protection, petroleum, water and sanitation, and environment.

Additionally, the International Finance Corporation — the arm of the World Bank Group for financing the private sector — allocated in 2021 development financing worth $421 million to the private sector in Egypt.