Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, delivered the opening speech at the 18th session of the “People and Banks” Economic Conference, organized by the Arab Media Center, with the participation of Alaa Farouk, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Dr. Mustafa Al-Feki, President of the Center, and Tariq Al-Khouli, Deputy Governor. The Central Bank, Mohamed Al-Etreby, President of the Egyptian Banks Federation and CEO of the National Bank, Hisham Okasha, CEO of the Bank of Egypt, Yahya Abu Al-Futouh, Executive Vice President of the National Bank, and an elite group of bankers and private sector companies.
In her speech, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat said that the conference represents an important platform for dialogue and the exchange of visions and ideas on the most prominent issues that concern those concerned with Egyptian economic affairs, thanking Dr. Mustafa Al-Feki – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Media Center, for preparing and organizing the conference, whose importance lies in In light of the central topics and issues it addresses; Perhaps the most prominent are the challenges and opportunities facing the Egyptian economy in light of the current regional and international changes.
She explained that the global financial system is being subjected to an unprecedented test, coinciding with the slowdown in economic activity as a result of the successive health, economic and geopolitical crises that the world has witnessed in recent years, in addition to the challenges resulting from climate change. These crises and challenges have negatively affected the ability of countries to fulfill their obligations. its financial and development obligations.
She stressed that these challenges revealed the inadequacy of the global financial system’s ability to mobilize stable, long-term financing on a large scale for the investments necessary to achieve sustainable development goals, especially with the increasing development needs of countries, as the financing gaps for developing countries widened between $2.5 trillion and $4 trillion annually, and the challenges worsened. Development, which affected all countries without exception, especially developing and least developed countries.
She continued: “Despite the efforts made by international financial institutions and governments, the severity of the challenges requires continuing cooperation between regional and international financial institutions to provide fair and equitable financing that meets the development needs of countries, in addition to coordinating efforts between central banks and governments at the international level to confront crises.” “The worsening international crisis, through coordination between financial and monetary policies, and ensuring that those policies are consistent with economic reform measures, in a way that supports the joint response to financial fluctuations.”
* Sustainability and financing framework for economic development
She added that in light of these exceptional regional and international circumstances, the Egyptian state, with all its institutions, sought to enhance the resilience of the Egyptian economy through serious reforms, noting that the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, after the merger, launched the “Sustainability and Financing Framework for Economic Development,” which Through it, the Ministry seeks to formulate an economic development policy based on data and evidence, to provide information that enhances discussions about needs and opportunities, and to fill gaps in various areas of development, while ensuring strong monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track progress and improve results, in addition to building a resilient economy, and enhancing economic stability. Macro, by implementing structural reforms to increase competitiveness, improve the business environment, support the flexibility of macro-financial policies, and shift towards a green economy.
The Ministry’s new framework also works to mobilize local and external financing to achieve sustainable development through an integrated national financing framework that enhances the allocation of resources to priority sectors, stimulates private sector investments, and accelerates the pace of progress towards achieving sustainable development goals.
* The National Structural Reforms Programme
Through the National Structural Reforms Programme, the state is working to implement various reforms that help enhance confidence in the Egyptian economy and support the achievement of inclusive and sustainable growth.
The first axis of the structural reform program aims to enhance macroeconomic resilience and stability, while the second axis deals with enhancing the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy, improving the business environment and stimulating the role of the private sector, while the third axis of the program aims to support the green transformation, and in this axis the state has implemented reforms from It would increase renewable energy investments, launch the first voluntary carbon market in Egypt, and other ambitious measures.
* Finance for development
She stressed that the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation seeks to advance financing efforts for development and increase green financing. Over the past years, we have strengthened our international partnerships, which was reflected in an increase in the cooperation portfolio between the Egyptian banking sector and international and regional institutions, by providing… Soft financing, lines of credit, direct investments in companies, and other cooperation mechanisms, bringing the portfolio of financing and investments of international institutions for the private sector in Egypt to more than $11 billion since 2020 until now, of which banks and financial institutions account for more than 57%, and have benefited. These financings include many banks, including the National Bank of Egypt, the Commercial International Bank, the Cairo Bank, and other government and private banks.
She stated that these financing and investments contributed to making more resources available to Egyptian banks in order to redirect them towards developing the small, medium and micro enterprise sector, as well as strengthening their commitment to expanding financing for environmentally friendly projects, enabling them to contribute effectively to green transformation efforts in Egypt.
She pointed to the signing of the Green Sustainable Industry (GSI) program agreement with the European Investment Bank, with the aim of helping and supporting the industry to improve performance, reduce resource consumption, reduce carbon emissions, and comply with environmental regulations. Through the Green Sustainable Industry Program, international partners provide 271 million euros to finance projects for efficiency and rationalization of resources, renewable energy, and low-carbon hydrogen, as well as carbon removal projects, explaining that success in this program opens horizons for further cooperation with international institutions.
The Ministry also launched the executive agreement for the European Union program to support trade, industry, growth and rapid market access (EU Tigara), which works to achieve two main goals: improving the capacity and efficiency of the Egyptian system concerned with enterprise development and trade, and secondly, increasing the participation of small and medium-sized Egyptian enterprises in selected industrial value chains. .
She explained that international institutions contributed to enabling Egyptian banks to issue the first green bonds to the private sector in 2021. Today, we are witnessing a great development and diversification of the innovative financial instruments that international financing institutions make available to Egyptian banks, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development recently announced the signing of the first agreement. A first-of-its-kind risk guarantee worth 70 million euros, with QNB Bank, to support the growth of small, medium and micro enterprises in Egypt and reduce credit risks, in a way that supports their competitive and operational capabilities and ensures the continuity of their business.
She explained that this agreement enhances the innovative solutions provided by international institutions and reflects the great trust between the banking sector and international financial institutions. It also opens horizons for more constructive cooperation between international partners and banks in Egypt.
In order to strengthen this relationship, the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation launched the “Hafiz” platform for financial and technical support for the private sector, as part of the state’s efforts to benefit from the best innovative financing alternatives available from international financial institutions and development partners to empower the private sector and maximize the benefit from development financing and support. Technical and consulting in stimulating the role of the private sector to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.
She also touched on the efforts undertaken by the government to enhance the environment for entrepreneurship and innovation in various sectors, through the formation of a specialized ministerial working group for entrepreneurship, to advance the sector and encourage entrepreneurship in order to build a competitive economy that attracts investments, explaining that through that group, We are working hard to coordinate between various government initiatives that support startups, and to involve the startup community, supporting sectors, and various parties, including representatives of the Central Bank and banks, in order to consolidate Egypt’s position as a pivotal regional center for startups and entrepreneurship.
