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Al-Mashat Partakes in EBRD Annual Meetings to Discuss 2021-2025 Strategy


Mon 05 Oct 2020 | 02:33 PM
Hassan El-Khawaga

Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat participated in the annual meetings of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Bank (EBRD), which are held virtually this week in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a representative of Egypt and governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Al-Mashat will discuss the bank’s new economic recovery plan for 2021-2025 and participate in the Global Infrastructure Forum, which aims to enhance coordination between multilateral development partners with governments to develop sustainable and resilient infrastructure for emerging economies.

The virtual event will also announce the election of a new president of the European Bank after the end of Suma Chakrabarty's term.

New Economic Recovery Plan for 2021-2025

The meetings will be discussing ways to strengthen and strengthen emerging economies’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development invests in 38 emerging markets, and Egypt is one of the bank's largest operations in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The new five-year strategy 2021-2025 seeks to strengthen economies through accelerating a green investment, achieve environmental sustainability, promoting equal job opportunities for women, and pushing for digital transformation.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is poised to become a majority green bank by 2025, increasing green financing to at least 50% of its total financing by 2025.

Last September, Al-Mashat met with the Acting President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to discuss the new strategy, as she emphasized that the new strategy is in line with the Egyptian government's development visions, and the Egyptian state’s endeavor to achieve environmental sustainability, promote equal opportunities for women and push for digital transformation.

Elections for the New President

Three candidates are running for the presidency of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which include the Polish Finance Minister, Tadeusz Kosinski, the former Italian Finance Minister, Pierre Carlo Paduan, and Odile Reno Basu, Director General of the Treasury in France, where each candidate today will deliver a speech and presentation before the shareholders and the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The minister will deliver a speech at the Global Infrastructure Forum, hosted by the European Bank, which aims to achieve multilateral cooperation to strengthen and develop infrastructure around the world and focusing on building back better.

Al-Mashat noted that strengthening economic diplomacy revives the spirit of multilateralism and promotes meaningful and purposeful partnerships to achieve development, which can be achieved by regularly organizing multi-stakeholder platforms to ensure that all projects between development partners are streamlined and effectively coordinated; adopting a consistent Global Partnerships Narrative People&Projects&Purpose (P&P&P); and mapping ODA financing to SDGs for all projects with multilateral and bilateral development partners.

EBRD has invested more than €6.5 billion in more than 116 projects in Egypt covering all sectors, the most important of which are infrastructure, manufacturing, services, agriculture, banking, and financial markets.

EBRD recently issued a report that sees Egypt's economy to grow at 2% in 2020 and rise to 5% growth next year, making it the only economy in the region to escape a recession in 2020.