IsDB’s financing portfolio in Egypt records $14B

CAIRO - 30 September 2021: “Egypt is one of the largest member countries that benefit from the financing of the Islamic Development Bank Group, with a portfolio of about $ 14 billion,” according to the Ministry of International Cooperation.

According to the Ministry, the IsDB’s financing portfolio covers 344 projects across several sectors, including electricity, energy, agriculture, irrigation, education, health, industry, mining, information and communications.

This came during a meeting held between Minister of International Cooperation, Rania A. Al-Mashat, and met Regional Manager of the Regional Hub of Cairo at Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) May Ali Babiker, on September 29, after assuming her duties in Cairo.

The meeting comes as part of the Ministry’s periodic meetings to follow up on the progress in the development cooperation portfolio and the joint relations with multilateral and bilateral development partners in support of  Egypt’s development vision.

Al-Mashat welcomed IsDB’s Regional Hub Manager, wishing her success in the new position. The Minister also expressed optimism that joint relations shall witness further development and growth during the upcoming period through facilitating the producers and the approvals for the projects financed by the institutions of the IsDB  in Egypt.

The meeting discussed the ongoing projects that the Islamic Development Bank contributes to financing, in particular the Electricity Interconnection Project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which aims to fulfill the demand for electrical energy and improve the performance and stability of the network in the two countries. In addition, the project shall link the two largest electric power systems  in the Arab world with a total capacity of more than 90,000 megawatts.

The two parties also negotiated ways to reinforce partnerships in the areas of economic and social development, such as the National School Feeding Programme and the various presidential initiatives. This, in addition to  exploring  prospects for cooperation with the IsDB to implement development strategies with the United Nations and its agencies; as well as IsDB’s action plans to meet the needs of member states, including Egypt.

Along the same lines of the UN sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the  Government of Egypt seeks to realize its ambitious development plan as  posited in Egypt’s Vision 2030. Hence, Al-Mashat stressed the keenness of the Ministry of International Cooperation to foster joint cooperation programs with the Islamic Development Bank Group during the coming period.

The Minister of International Cooperation referred to the Ministry’s strategy to advance the prospects for economic and development cooperation with multilateral and bilateral development partners through the Economic Diplomacy’s three principles, the Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs), the Official Development Assistance mapping to the Sustainable Development Goals (ODA-SDG Mapping), and the Global Partnerships Narrative that puts “People at the Core” through “Projects in Action” with “Purpose as the Driver”, with the aim of documenting development stories to increase the domestic and international  awareness of Egypt’s development story.

May Ali Babiker, Regional Manager of the Regional Hub of Cairo at Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), thanked the Minister of International Cooperation for the welcoming reception and expressed her eagerness to make strides with regards to the joint cooperation framework in order advance the role of the Islamic Development Bank in implementing the priority development plans for Egypt.

The Islamic Development Bank was established in 1974 to meet the development needs of member states, with five major entities comprising it: the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD); the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits (ICIEC); the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC); the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI); and the World WAQF Foundation (WWF) that has been recently added.

During the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF) held between 8-9 September 2021, under the patronage of 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. The workshop addressed leveraging triangular partnerships to enhance development in Africa through the exchange of experiences and the aversion of pitfalls when forging  future partnerships.