Al-Mashat Participates in High-Level Conference on "EU-OECD" Project

The Minister of International Cooperation H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat inaugurated the high-level conference on “Support to Enhanced Administrative & Public Economic Governance in Egypt” Project, done with the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

This included the participation of H.E. Saleh El-Sheikh, President of the Central Agency for Organization and Administration; H.E. Ambassador Christian Berger, European Union Ambassador to Egypt; Dr. Ahmed Kamaly, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development; Eng. Ghada Labib, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology; and Mr. Janos Bertok, Deputy Director, OECD Directorate of Public Governance.

In her speech, Al-Mashat stressed the importance of the programme implemented in partnership with the EU, the OECD, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and the Central Agency for Organization and Administration, given its consistency with the Government of Egypt’s priorities regarding transparency, good governance and administrative reform.

H.E. explained that the program is based on three main pillars; supporting Egypt's Vision 2030, supporting the National Plan for Administrative Reform, and implementing effective functioning financial systems through effective participation among all national entities and development partners and continuous coordination among all relevant parties.

Al-Mashat highlighted the efforts of the Government of Egypt to implement structural reforms in all sectors since 2016, with the aim of promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and embarking on a reform process by adopting Egypt Vision 2030 and raising the efficiency of employees, stimulating comprehensive reform and capacity building at the individual, institutional and practical levels and digital transformation.

H.E. continued that the Ministry of International Cooperation is keen on achieving sustainable development priorities in many areas, including public administration and governance through international partnerships with multilateral and bilateral development partners, under the umbrella of concerted efforts between different state actors.

She noted that the Ministry has established strategic partnerships and launched in 2020 the principles of economic diplomacy, which works to stimulate development efforts through effective development cooperation based on state ownership and priorities and focuses on achieving effective outcomes and partnerships with transparent and mutually inclusive partnerships.

Al-Mashat stated that the Ministry looks forward to participating in the follow-up report of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) in 2023, which aims to provide new evidence on how to enhance the effectiveness of international cooperation by supporting inclusive dialogue, accountability and transparency, and enhancing governance of coordination actions between government and development partners.

The Minister applauded the cooperation between the government and the EU within which the implementation of this program comes, pointing out that the current portfolio of development cooperation with the EU is about €1.3 billion and varies in many priority areas such as energy, water, transport, agriculture and small, medium and micro projects.

H.E. also pointed to the close relationship with the OECD, in many areas, including working to advance development cooperation policies, the GPEDC, and private sector participation in development in Egypt.

She noted that these efforts resulted in the preparation of a study on how the private sector participates in development in Egypt which was used as a basic reference for the Kampala Principles to promote ownership of private sector engagement which was launched in 2019.

Al-Mashat concluded her speech by emphasizing the role of the Ministry of International Cooperation in supporting the efforts of the state through multilateral cooperation, thus contributing to the creation of close ties between the relevant parties, and looking forward to further joint work through partnership with the EU to continue the development and reconstruction efforts across all sectors.

The two-day conference aims to discuss the project’s role in public governance through panel discussions with all relevant national stakeholders and development partners, with a view to maximizing the benefit of the programme in light of the Government of Egypt’s priorities, as well as monitoring and evaluating its activities.