Al-Mashat Participates in G20 Compact with Africa Summit, G20 Investment Summit

On behalf of H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, participated in the G20 Compact with Africa Summit.

It was organized by the German government, aiming to enhance dialogue between Germany and African countries, and advance economic cooperation and progress in taking concrete measures to enhance private investment, intra-African trade, and cooperation in the field of energy.

The Minister participated in the G20 Investment Summit between the German business community and the partner countries with Africa.

It was organized with the support of the German-African Business Association, the German Industries Confederation, the German Foreign Trade Federation, and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The summit aims to attract more German companies to the markets of African countries participating in the cooperation with Africa Summit, while enhancing the participation of entrepreneurs and politicians from Africa and Germany.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President of France Emmanuel Macron participated in the two summits, along with a number of leaders and heads of African countries, including the heads of state of Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, and Kenya, and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as the African Union President President Azali Assoumani and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

The event also included heads of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, the President of the European Union, the President of the European Commission, and many others.

During her participation, Al-Mashat thanked the German Chancellor, and also conveyed to the participants the greetings and appreciation of Sisi and his hopes that the two summits will strengthen joint German-African relations in a way that drives growth and achieves development priorities of countries across the continent.

The Minister pointed out that the Egyptian Government believes that the private sector is the main engine of economic growth, playing an essential role in alleviating poverty, creating job opportunities, and enhancing competitiveness.

Hence, Egypt is fully committed to creating and maintaining a suitable environment for the private sector in a way that enhances the investment environment to attract more foreign investments in the country.

The Minister added that the government is working to enhance the participation of the private sector and its involvement in development projects, especially through cooperation with bilateral and multilateral development partners, to achieve sustainable development and economic growth, in addition to increasing partnerships between the public and private sectors in development projects. H.E. also noted that this includes creating a suitable environment for entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive and grow, citing many major development projects implemented within this framework in several fields, especially renewable energy, water, food security and others.

Al-Mashat highlighted the development financing that the private sector obtained from multilateral and bilateral development partners from 2020 until now, amounted to about $9.7 billion, in addition to technical support and other advisory services.

Additionally, the Minister drew attention to national efforts to enhance the transition to a green economy by increasing investments in the field of water security, food security, energy security, and sustainable infrastructure, through the country platform of the “NWFE” program, which is an example of multilateral national platforms.

The platform enhances the path of cooperation and coordination in accordance with the principles of country ownership, transparency, and shared responsibility, as approved by the G20 as an effective means of enhancing financing flows for the development agenda and maximizing the utilization of resources.

H.E. noted that the NWFE program was designed based on the nexus of energy, water, and food security, as there is a close connection between the three sectors through joint policies, as well as the environmental systems on which natural resources and human activities ultimately depend, to mobilize climate investments, soft financing, and technical support, grants and debt swaps to implement specific projects.

It is also a model that can be applied in countries of the African continent to achieve their nationally determined contributions and climate ambition.

The Minister shed light on the energy pillar within the “NWFE” program, to implement renewable energy projects with a capacity of 10 gigawatts to replace 10 thermal power plants with a capacity of 5 gigawatts, thus strengthening Egypt’s move to renewable energy and implementing its pledge to increase renewable energy by 42% by 2030, instead of 2035.

This includes the implementation of the Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy and the targeted investments in the energy sector amount to about $10 billion, through innovative financing mechanisms at the level of grants, debt swaps, technical assistance to qualify projects, credit guarantees and reduce risks, private sector investments, and concessional development financing.

This features cooperation with a number of development partners, such as: the German government, the United States of America, the European Investment Bank, the European Union, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, the HIPCA Fund through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the TCAF Fund through the World Bank.

The Minister also indicated that the energy pillar of the NWFE program focuses on highlighting the efforts of the Egyptian government to modernize its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs), and fulfilling its commitment to accelerating the transition towards a low-carbon development path through NWFE, in line with the political declaration issued by Egypt, Germany and the USA at COP27.

The Minister also referred to the high-level roundtable that was held earlier this week on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the launch of the “NWFE” program, to monitor the progress made in implementing the projects at the level of the water, food, energy and sustainable transport pillar.

The event witnessed the issuance of a communique in coordination with 20 international financial institutions, climate alliances, and multilateral and bilateral development partners, including Germany, the United States of America, and France. Egypt was applauded for its efforts to fulfill its pledges in the climate agenda, especially updating the nationally determined contributions, which contributed to implementing the platform’s goals.

The national level of the “NWFE” program, and the emphasis on continuing cooperation for the successful implementation of the program’s projects, is in line with the broader goals of the global development agenda and the climate agenda.