Al-Mashat Discusses Joint Cooperation with World Bank

On Thursday, the Minister of International Cooperation Rania A. Al-Mashat met with Ibrahim Dajani, the Regional Director for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure at the World Bank Group (WBG) to discuss joint areas of cooperation and the enhancement of private sector engagement.

During their meeting, Al-Mashat and Dajani discussed prospects for joint cooperation between the Egyptian government and the World Bank Group in the transport sector.

The meeting entertained the means to catalyze private sector investments and tracking the status of ongoing projects.

In addition, it tackled propitious opportunities for future cooperation in the field of green cities, in the presence of Mrs. Marina Weiss, Regional Director of the World Bank office in Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti; Robert Bou Jaoude, World Bank Operations Manager for Egypt; and a number of officials from the WBG’s office in Egypt.

This comes within the framework of the periodic meetings held by H.E. Al-Mashat with multilateral and bilateral development partners to consolidate joint cooperation relations and advance Egypt’s Vision 2030 through development financing agreements, and technical support.

The Minister of International Cooperation welcomed Mr. Dajani at the meeting, commending the strategic relations between Egypt and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which channels investments into numerous development projects in Egypt, especially in the transport sector.

Al-Mashat provided an outlook for future partnerships between the government and the World Bank in the transport sector, sustainable infrastructure, and the promotion of smart solutions in the sector to create more job opportunities and increase the sector's contribution to economic growth.

Furthermore, the minister addressed the potential for enhancing cooperation in the field of green cities and dry ports, while pushing for further private sector engagement in these projects to advance the transport sector across Egypt.

She stressed the importance of the transport sector, which tops the government's priority list as the highest recipient of development financing from multilateral and bilateral development partners during 2020, at a value of $1.8 billion.

She pointed out that the development of the transport sector echoes in the exponential growth in the private sector’s contributions in development interventions.

She explained that the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development has financed several projects in the transport sector, including the “Egypt National Railways Restructuring Project” (ENRRP) project in 2009 with a value of $270 million, as well as additional financing worth $330 million in 2011.

The World Bank is also financing the “Greater Cairo Air Pollution Management and Climate Change” project with a value of $200 million, which ensures the reduction of harmful emissions from vehicles and the provision of infrastructure to meet the energy supply requirements for charging and maintaining electric vehicles.

On his part,  Dajani, praised the efforts made by the government to develop the infrastructure, especially in the airport development, and the speedy implementation of the transport sector projects during the past two years, elaborating that the World Bank is greatly investing in expanding development partnerships with the Egyptian government.

Moreover, Dajani said that the major transport sector development projects implemented by Egypt support social and economic development and directly benefit the citizens, adding that these projects further stimulate the participation of the private sector and increase its investments in the transport sector.

It is noteworthy that, last March, the World Bank Group approved a “Railway Improvement and Safety for Egypt” (RISE) project, with a value of $440 million to improve safety for passengers along the Alexandria-Cairo-Nag Hammadi line. There are also discussions regarding more collaboration between both entities in the fields of ports, and dry ports.

The minister organized a Multi- Stakeholder Platform (MSP), in July 2020, with the participation of the Ministry of Transport and a large number of multilateral and bilateral development partners, where the sector strategy, future cooperation opportunities and ongoing projects were presented, as the Ministry of Transport is working on implementing several projects, including the expansion of dry ports and the modernization of the train system and metro lines.

It is worth mentioning that the ongoing development cooperation portfolio with the World Bank amounts to $5.4 billion to finance 15 projects across various sectors, including education, health, transportation, social solidarity, petroleum, housing, sanitation, local development, and environment.