MOIC Hosts High-Level Event on Financing for Development

The Ministry of International Cooperation (MIC) hosted a high-level side event to the 2021 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development, titled “Pushing Stakeholder Capitalism through International Cooperation” on April 12.

Alongside the Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, the event included Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, H.E. Dr. Tarek El Molla; the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, Sérgio Pimenta; and the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Head of Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East, Mirek Dusek.

Moderated by the TV President and Media Advisor of Al-Hadath Pan Arab News Channel, Doha Al Zohairy, the panelists discussed policies, incentives, and actions to strengthen and promote private sector engagement catalyzing the achievement of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the principles of Stakeholder Capitalism.

H.E. Al-Mashat has reiterated that 2021 is the year of private sector engagement in order to increase the purpose-driven investments, mapped to the 17 UN SDGs. The Government of Egypt recognizes that engaging with the private sector is critical to accelerating the embracement of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles that implement the national development agenda across various sectors.

“Now is the time for the G.R.I.D framework: the Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development plan to push towards the 2030 sustainable targets. The Ministry is working on harnessing a renewed and reinvigorated type of multilateralism that centers dialogue, transparency, and strengthened partnerships,” said Al-Mashat.

Al-Mashat presented the “Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator”, as a public-private model that feeds into the Ministry’s framework to push towards Stakeholder Capitalism, achieving gender parity. In collaboration with the WEF, National Council for Women (NCW), and the private sector, the Ministry works on women’s economic empowerment, in alignment with Egypt’s reform policies and development agenda.

Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla said that Egypt began reforms back in 2016 to address economic growth, and the Government has undertaken many legislative reforms designed to make the economy attractive for foreign and local investors. He added that Egypt has launched a 2035 Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy (ISES) that aims to reduce greenhouse gases and increase the contribution of renewable energy to Egypt’s energy sector.

“We currently have over 60 international companies working in the oil and gas sector in Egypt, and we cooperate with various partners in the field of investment pushing towards the global sustainable agenda for energy use and production. Our goal is to achieve mutual benefit for all stakeholders involved,” he said.

IFC’s Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, Sérgio Pimenta emphasized that building the future means building back better through inclusivity and green recovery. “What we are doing as IFC, is that we are trying to realign our support to make sure that we are more present in this context and that we are helping economies during this crisis,” he added.

The WEF’s Head of Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East, Mirek Dusek expressed that COVID-19 was a wake-up call for everyone. He added that as the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are becoming more important for companies, the aforementioned principles of Stakeholder Capitalism are key. “We are in a changing geo-economic landscape globally, but we are seeing an openness to new forms of collaborations [between the public and private sector], in this new landscape," Dusek said.

Al-Mashat added that global solidarity in the face of challenges is key to moving forward. Redesigning development finance to ensure the participation of all stakeholders is necessary to pave the way for economic growth. Stakeholder Capitalism offers a seat at the table of decision-making to all parties involved in the development framework.

She stated that the support of MDBs and IFIs is essential in order to expand the blended finance instruments that shall boost the local capital market investment, and induce employment and economic inclusion.

As Egypt is committed to the principles of Stakeholder Capitalism, the Ministry’s Economic Diplomacy doctrine has helped Egypt secure $9.8 billion in financing as of January 2021. The mapping of the Official Development Assistance to the UN SDGs puts in perspective the country’s strides towards achieving the glocal sustainability targets; merging the power of both the public and the private sectors.

“The reform process is one of political will married with exceptional expertise and financial means. Egypt’s Development Vision is only attainable through fruitful cooperation that fosters the principles of Stakeholder Capitalism and pushes towards the ‘Leave No One Behind’ pledge; to survive the socio-economic challenges caused by the pandemic, we must all make it through,” Al-Mashat stated.

As part of the Regional Action Group for the Middle East and North Africa, Al-Mashat joined the MENA region’s foremost decision-makers in the World Economic Forum in 2020 to establish a roadmap that advocates the importance of public-private collaboration in mitigating the pandemic’s socioeconomic impacts, by putting forth the principles of Stakeholder Capitalism.

The principles cover a wide array of development cooperation tactics, focusing on: crafting inclusive economic policies, stimulating economic integration, re-shaping the education system, harnessing the 4th industrial revolution, promoting environmental sustainability, mitigating global health risks, and committing to good and agile governance. Countries that adopt, foster, and implement these principles are those that will march ahead and sail through a smooth economic recovery post the pandemic.