The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, and the Minister of Civil Aviation, Lieutenant General Mohamed Abbas Helmy, held a meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of International Cooperation in the New Administrative Capital, in the presence of the teams and officials of the two ministries, in light of coordination between the two ministries to discuss ways to enhance international partnerships to support the Egyptian state’s vision to develop and increase the capacity of Egyptian airports as well as developing the areas surrounding airports in a way that enhances investments and supports the development vision in the country.
During the meeting, Al-Mashat stressed the importance of national relations with multilateral and bilateral development partners to enhance comprehensive development goals, and the partnerships implemented within the framework of the state’s vision and priorities to implement various sectoral strategies. H.E. explained that the concessional development financing portfolio is worth about $22 billion and includes many projects in various development sectors to implement SDGs, most notably SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG7:Affordable and Clean Energy and SDG9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Al-Mashat said that the Ministry of International Cooperation has, over the past three years, embarked on developing the framework of international cooperation and development financing -in an attempt to implement presidential directives- by updating joint strategies with multilateral and bilateral development partners, led by the World Bank Group (WBG), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN, France, the United States of America, and others, noting that all strategies implemented with development partners are based on clear principles to enhance the effectiveness of development cooperation, which are country ownership, comprehensive partnerships, focus on results, transparency and accountability.
Al-Mashat also explained that, through international partnerships, the ministry is keen to provide technical support, concessional development financing, and grants, in addition to exchanging experiences for various sectors of the state, including ministries, research centers, economic bodies, and universities, as well as civil society and the private sector, through multiple mechanisms, such as joint committees, coordination and continuous negotiation of the projects under implementation, follow-up and evaluation in a way that maximizes the economic and social benefit from development financing, ensuring that the implemented projects are consistent with national and international goals, and improving the management of effective development cooperation.
H.E. pointed to the development partnerships implemented with international institutions to implement infrastructure projects that have a significant and tangible impact in Egypt, such as the Benban solar energy complex, wind energy plants, and projects to deliver natural gas to homes, as well as wastewater treatment and social housing projects. That is in addition to projects related to sustainable infrastructure in the transportation sector, such as developing the metro and inaugurating the first dry port in Egypt, pointing to the Ministry’s keenness to coordinate between development partners and national authorities to maximize benefit and achieve integration between efforts to implement the planned projects.
Al-Mashat also touched on the Ministry's approach to governance under the umbrella of the state's vision to enhance transparency and governance to ensure maximum benefit from funds, and to ensure precise guidance of soft financing.
For his part, Helmy praised the permanent coordination and cooperation with the Ministry of International Cooperation in various common fields to achieve the Egyptian state’s vision of sustainable development, noting that the Egyptian airports sector is one of the promising sectors that hold many different investment opportunities, which contributes to In the economic development of the Egyptian state, especially in light of the opportunity to participate in developing and raising the efficiency of many airports and increasing their capacity to keep pace with the continuous and expected increase during the coming period in the number of flights and passengers and improving the level of services provided to passengers in line with the goals of the Egyptian state in increasing the number of tourists to 30 million tourists by 2028.
H.E. Helmy pointed out that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is always keen to coordinate with the Ministry of International Cooperation to prepare partnerships with major financial institutions to implement many projects related to developing Egyptian airports, overcoming all obstacles and providing all facilities to increase participation in the various investment and economic activities in Egyptian airports to open great horizons to develop the aviation sector to become a major driver of national economic growth.
H.E. added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is working to bring about a qualitative shift and a major boom in airport services to increase their capacity, enhance the experience of travelers and increase their level of satisfaction, in accordance with the latest international systems and the highest standards of safety and security.
It is worth noting that the soft development financing portfolio for the civil aviation sector amounts to about $180 million, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), to implement the air navigation development project, develop control services for air navigation systems in Egypt, and use the latest communications, navigation, and surveillance systems with the aim of increasing safety of the airspace and its efficiency in Egypt in accordance with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the standards of the European Union. Also, the expansion of the airspace, which has a positive effect on aviation rates and an increase in tourism in Egypt, in addition to the Borg El Arab Airport modernization project, which aims to establish a passenger terminal at Al Arab Airport with an area of 40,000 square meters and its capacity of 4 million passengers annually and to serve low-cost airlines, bringing the airport’s capacity to 6 million passengers.
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