On Thursday, the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, stated that IFIs should expand the provision of blended financing and innovative financing tools, which enhances private sector engagement in development across various fields; noting that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the world on different levels; one of which is countries’ posed restrictions and precautionary measures at the beginning of 2020, as well as the global supply chains’ crisis.
Al-Mashat noted that the pandemic has advanced multilateralism, and strengthened the need for joint cooperation between all stakeholders in unity, to overcome the crisis.
H.E. further elaborated that the efforts of IFIs is in continuation, with regards to the distribution and provision of COVID-19 vaccines, especially for developing countries and emerging economies; adding that as part of the leadership directives, and the strategic relations between Egypt and its development partners, joint cooperation has been further consolidated over the past two years, benefiting from all aspects of cooperation and partnerships with international institutions, which supports Egypt’s Vision 2030.
On his part, the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, expressed his pleasure to attend the WYF, which is developing year by year due to the exceptional enthusiasm of Egyptian and international youth, as well as the expedient organizational capacity witnessed in the preparations for this forum on an annual basis.
Mohieldin added that the world is facing several risks and challenges, and when faced with a crisis there comes a state of panic, “however we do not learn from the past lessons”; noting that the world, through the pandemic, is facing five different health-related challenges, climate change, cybersecurity, economic risks, and social risks.
He further elaborated that the common factor between all these risks is the world’s state of denial, as the world is currently facing the pandemic despite the professionals’ past warnings to humanity from passing through such a pandemic.
Mohieldin referred to a report titled “A World at Risk” published in 2019 and financed by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the World Health Organization (WHO); stating that the world will suffer from an upcoming pandemic if it doesn't prepare well for it, especially after the world’s experience in responding to the Ebola pandemic.
With regards to climate change that the world has warned of before, there is an urgent financing need for $5 or $6 trillion dollars annually to deal with climate change. Mohieldin noted that developing countries were unable to provide $100 billion to fulfill their pledges to developed and developing countries.
Furthermore, he stated that cybersecurity has become of utmost importance to the world. Dr. Mohieldin mentioned that the world’s growth outlook has reached 4,1%, whereas Egypt’s growth outlook has been raised to 5.5%, in the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, explaining that Egypt’s growth rate is higher than any other global average and that what worries is not the growth rate, but its disparity and the failure to achieve the desired results for the youth and marginalized groups.
Not only that, during his remarks, Mohieldin warned of inflation, which recorded its highest rates in the United States of America in 40 years, and reached the highest rate in Europe since the Euros inception, stating that this could cause an unprecedented global crisis and turmoil in the indebtedness of developing countries as well as affect the exchange rate.
On her part, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Odile Renaud-Basso, applauded the strategic cooperation between the bank and the Government of Egypt, which plays a vital role in contribution to financing the private sector, and puts a new framework for the country partnership that bolsters private sector engagement in development; adding that the EBRD seeks supporting the recovery efforts through establishing joint projects in cooperation with the private sector to develop the infrastructure.
Basso referred to the Country Strategy 2022/2027 with the Government of Egypt that contributes to advancing the private sector’s engagement, noting that the private sector for its part, plays a role in pushing forward recovery from the pandemic.
Basso called on the international community to jointly implement development projects that aim to empower the youth through business loans, liquidity financing and other measures that accelerate recovery.; noting that the Government's efforts are remarkable across various sectors, including providing development financing in 2020 for the largest solar power plant for the private sector in the Kom Ombo area in Aswan.
Ambassador Nasser Kamel, the Secretary-General of the Union for the Mediterranean, expressed his gratitude and pleasure to attend the WYF that is held under the auspices of H.E. President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi; stating that this forum is the biggest global forum organized, led and attended by the exceptionally engaging youth. Ambassador Kamel stated the COVID-19 pandemic has caused advanced precautionary measures and restrictive policies across many countries.
He elaborated that the Union for the Mediterranean, had put forward many initiatives and mechanisms to make vaccines available to member states, and to enhance the responsibility of the international community, noting that the IFIs had played an important and vital role in pushing the world to deal with the pandemic, and the Union for the Mediterranean had made 150 million Euros available for scientific research in the region on issues of health, climate change, and the digital gap.
Kamel noted that the Union for the Mediterranean has worked systematically to enhance cooperation with the governments of the 42 member states, to support their ability to deal with health and environmental crises, pointing out that the global supply chain crisis is pushing Europe to reconsider its production policy and turn to the Southern Mediterranean countries as well.
Marina Wes, the WBG Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti referred to the WBG’s s Global Economic Prospects report, which has upgraded Egypt’s outlook to 5.5% in 2022, compared to 5% and 4.5% in October, adding that this outlook is due to the Government of Egypt’s efforts in achieving recovery.
Wes further stated that since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank has increased its development financing to the international community through strengthening joint efforts that push forward inclusive recovery, in a way that supports Egypt’s resilience to shocks. Wes noted that the WBG and its affiliations have provided $150 billion between April 2020 and June 2021 in the form of innovative financing tools such as blended financing to support countries.
She applauded the Ministry of International Cooperation’s Multi Stakeholder Platform (MSP) plays an active role in coordinating efforts of bilateral and multilateral development partners to respond to the pandemic, noting that the World Bank is cooperating with the Government of Egypt to enhance private sector’s engagement in development, as in 2021, the WBG along with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have provided$720 million to the Government of Egypt to support the development across various sectors, such as gender equality and private sector’s engagement.
The Executive Vice President, African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), George Elombi, noted that “we could only make sense on the world stage, if we came in united on our own first and if we spoke with one voice.” He further called for the youth, the creatives, to reach out to the program if they have projects to implement, “because we believe this area would have a great impact if we invested our resources in such projects.”
The Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Ahmed Rizk gave an overview on the UNIDO’s efforts to achieve SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, as working towards this goal aligns with all the other Sustainable Development Goals.
Rizk pointed out that the UNIDO works towards advancing industry and productivity, as in Egypt, it has launched an observatory measure to the impact of the industrial sector development. He further added that the “Decent Life” Presidential Initiative launched by H.E. President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, is a unique model that supports private sector engagement in development and boosts growth rates.
Director of Media and Communications for the International Organization for Migration, Leonard Doyle mentioned that the world has been hit severely by the pandemic, the pandemic has exacerbated challenges in multidimensional levels, hence there is a need to deal in unity with such challenges. Doyle noted the importance of developing sustainability processes and learning from the past to consider ways to respond to future challenges, “and to ensure preparedness for the plan will support the world going forward as we address the pandemic and climate change.”
The Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Liu Zhenmin, stated that playing an active role in supporting countries to build back better is important, noting that at the global level, the United Nations is committed to enabling cooperation and multilateral action to support these efforts through vaccinations and treatment through making them available.
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