Al-Mashat: Egypt Entered Coronavirus Crisis with Strong Fiscal, Foreign Reserves

Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat said on Saturday Egypt entered the coronavirus crisis with very strong fiscal and foreign reserve buffers as a result of the homegrown reform program that was implemented between 2016 and 2019 with the IMF.

Al-Mashat's remarks came during her participation in the “Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Fostering A Sustainable Recovery for the Future” panel, part of the 6th Edition of the Rome 2020 Mediterranean Dialogues under the theme “Rethinking Prosperity”.

Hosted by Amy Kellogg from Fox News and Karim El Aynaoui, President of the Policy Center for the New South, Morocco, with Hamad Bin Sulaiman Al Bazai, Deputy Minister of Finance, Saudi Arabic, Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and Jeffrey Schlaegnhauf, Deputy Secretary-General, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the discussion revolved around the pandemic; and the successful policies and measures taken to mitigate the socio-economic impact on countries.

“The pandemic was the biggest fire drill in history, with no catalog. The key to a strong recovery is through resilience coupled with the agility of policymakers, the private sector, and people to adapt and innovate,” Al-Mashat pointed out.

[caption id="attachment_182974" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The International Cooperation Minister[/caption]

"Egypt’s economy is forecast to grow by 2% in 2020 and projected to rebound by 5% in 2021 according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)," Al-Mashat noted.

She provided the example of Education 2.0; the initiative led by the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, supported by the Ministry of International Cooperation with the World Bank. As the pandemic hit, more than 13 million students quickly adapted to remote-learning through online schooling.

She also highlighted the program “Takaful and Karama”, implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity which contributed to the most vulnerable groups in Egypt pre and during the pandemic, and has also accelerated the movement of workers from the informal to the formal sector, made possible through the digital platform activated by the government in 2020.

The minister also explained that a new law for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was passed to incentivize and attract informal activity into the formal sector. The Government of Egypt is also working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to see how SMEs can tie into bigger businesses to help push them further.

The reforms carried out by the government, which include fiscal and monetary as well structural on a sectoral level, were accelerated due to the pandemic noting the transformation to clean energy which began in 2014 and is part of the Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035, and the economic inclusion of women.

Egypt was one of the first countries to adopt gender-sensitive policies around COVID-19, with the UNDP reporting that the country ranked first in the Middle East and West Asia regions for taking 21 measures to support women during the pandemic.

“This crisis has shown us that green matters. For every country to be able to mobilize, attract investments, and create job opportunities, they have to be part of the ‘going green’ narrative,” Al-Mashat noted.

The Ministry of International Cooperation currently has a total development cooperation portfolio of 34 projects that answer to SDG 7: Affordable and Renewable Energy with total financing of $5.9 million, with an additional development financing secured in 2020 worth $425 million.