Egypt's Al-Mashat, ITFC's Director Discuss Means of Expanding Joint Cooperation

On Sunday, the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat met with the CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) Hani Sonbol, to discuss means of enhancing joint relations and opening up the horizon of cooperation with the ITFC, one of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) institutions.

This is in addition to touching upon the 2022 joint cooperation program that comes within the framework of Egypt’s Vision 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the meeting, they discussed joint development cooperation between both sides, as in 2021, a development agreement with a value of $1.1 billion was allocated for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), and the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).

The development financing provided by the ITFC has reached $2.3 billion, which reflects the depth of the joint relations. Currently, there are ongoing discussions on adding the Egyptian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) to the ITFC’s beneficiaries in the upcoming period, as well as means of persifying areas of cooperation, including climate financing.

Furthermore, they touched upon the Corporation’s efforts in promoting Egyptian exports, as Al-Mashat praised the cooperation with ITFC, one of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) institutions, and the joint efforts over the past period, which contributed to pushing forward the national development agenda; highlighting the Corporation’s role in bolstering intra-regional trade between member countries.

The Minister referred to the potential of enhancing cooperation between the ITFC and the Saudi Grant, to finance Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), through development financing worth $200 million. H.E. further referred to the session that shall be held by the Ministry of International Cooperation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, and development partners, on “Going Green” at Glasgow.

Minister Al-Mashat reviewed the results of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) that was held on the supply sector titled “Sustainable Value Chains: Towards Food Security, with the participation of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) institutions, as the CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) Hani Sonbol, praised the role that MSPs play in bringing all stakeholders to one decision-making table, to enhance communication between the government and development partners in a way that supports the implementation of development projects.

Sonbol further applauded the joint cooperation with the Government of Egypt, and expressed the Corporation's openness to all opportunities in order to persity the development cooperation portfolio, especially in light of the development boom taking place across all sectors; adding that the ITFC is finalizing the new joint cooperation program for the upcoming period, in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, and that currently, there are ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Finance in regards to the development of a digital platform for trade exchange.

He also invited the Minister of International Cooperation to take part in the meeting of the governing council of the “Arab-Africa Foreign Trade Bridge” forum, which is taking place in Cairo next December. Sonbol noted that the Corporation is working on developing new policies for climate finance, to keep pace with global developments that are allocated to combating climate change. Sonbol stated that the ITFC is working to develop intra-regional trade among the member countries of IsDB; noting that the Corporation’s annual development financing portfolio amounts to $6 billion.

During the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF) held between 8-9 September 2021, under the patronage of H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, a workshop titled “Triangular Cooperation with Africa” was convened by the Ministry of International Cooperation, in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.

Egypt is one of ITFC’s most important partners as its total number of financing operations amount to $12.46 billion, covering the import of petroleum and petroleum products, and food commodities.