The Council of Arab Business Women has chosen Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat as its person of the year 2020.

In a statement released Wednesday, the council said that the choice is attributed to Al-Mashat’s achievements and successes over her professional career.

Al-Mashat served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior economists in Washington, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) sub-governor, and she adopted structural reforms in the tourism sector when she served as minister of tourism, reforms that aimed at attaining sustainable touristic development in accordance with global standards.

“Al-Mashat's efforts in the tourism sector resulted in improving the sector significantly, raising tourists headed to Egypt by 40 percent and achieving the highest revenues in the sector's history, at $12.6 billion in 2019,” according to the Council of Arab Business Women statement.