Al-Mashat, Qatari Ambassador Discuss Joint Efforts in Youth Empowerment Field

Nada Mustafa

Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, held a meeting with Mr. Tariq bin Ali Faraj Al-Ansari, Ambassador of the State of Qatar in Cairo, Mr. Hassan Al-Mulla, CEO of Silatech Foundation, Mr. Fahd Al-Sulaiti, CEO of Education Above All Foundation, and a number of officials from both sides, within the framework of meetings held with multilateral and bilateral development partners, and discussing proposed aspects of cooperation in areas of common interest.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister welcomed the Qatari officials, stressing the government’s keenness to enhance ways of joint cooperation in order to enhance development efforts, within the framework of joint relations between Egypt and Qatar.

The two sides discussed supporting areas of cooperation in the field of economic empowerment for youth, supporting education efforts for the most needy groups, providing training and qualification programs for young people in order to prepare them for the labor market, and enhancing benefits from entrepreneurship and digital transformation programs provided by the two institutions.

Al-Mashat highlighted the role played by the Ministry to strengthen joint relations through the principles of economic diplomacy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, which aims to maximize the economic and social benefit from development financing, ensure the consistency of development projects with national priorities and sustainable development goals, and improve the management of development cooperation to implement projects effectively, with the aim of implementing the SDGs.

H.E. pointed to the initiatives and partnerships launched by the Ministry with development partners in the field of empowering youth, supporting their capabilities, and enhancing efforts to support innovation and entrepreneurship, in coordination with national authorities, noting the launch of the “Hafiz” platform for financial and technical support to the private sector, which provides support from development partners to the private sector, whether Large or small and medium companies, as well as emerging companies and entrepreneurship, which stimulates government efforts aimed at empowering private sector companies and increasing their role in development efforts.

In this regard, the Qatari side welcomed the efforts made by the Ministry of International Cooperation with development partners. They also praised the launch of the Hub for Advisory, Finance & Investment for Enterprises platform to enhance private sector companies’ benefit from financial and non-financial services and enhance the private sector’s ability to provide job opportunities and support development efforts. The Qatari side also welcomed the joint cooperation with the government in supporting initiatives aimed at empowering young people and developing their skills.

It is worth noting that the Education Above All Foundation was established in 2012. The Foundation works to ensure equal access to education and harness the power of quality education for positive, sustainable and comprehensive change. The Foundation aims to build a global movement that contributes to human, social and economic development through quality education and other initiatives and programs to ensure quality, comprehensive and equitable education, within the framework of implementing the United Nations SDGs.

Moreover, Silatech Foundation, is an international, non-profit, non-governmental social development institution, based in Qatar, launched in 2008, that works to enhance young people’s ability to access jobs and enterprise development through innovative solutions and entrepreneurship.