AIIB annual meetings in Sharm El Sheikh will promote dev. investment opportunities, Maait

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) annual meetings will be held for the first time in Africa tomorrow in Sharm El Sheikh. The two-day event is expected to receive some of the world’s most economically influential figures, including finance ministers, and central bank governors to discuss sustainable development in a world full of challenges and other topics.  

The 8th annual AIIB meetings, held under the auspices of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, will highlight the role of international partners in financing development objectives in emerging and African countries, particularly countries that were negatively affected by the high cost of finance in international markets. The president is expected to attend tomorrow’s ceremony.

Mohamed Maait, Egypt’s Finance Minister, stressed that the president’s sponsorship of the AIIB meetings sends an important message of Egypt’s awareness of the importance of infrastructure investments and mobilizing financial resources to stimulate the private sector to play a greater role in supporting emerging economies.

The minister explained that the meetings are an important platform for Egypt to promote development investment opportunities with competitive and preferential advantages such as a strategic geographical location which makes it an international hub for production and exports.

The AIIB’s annual meetings will also act as an international forum for shedding light on Egypt’s role in connecting the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe together, an official statement by the ministry wrote.

Maait, who is also Egypt’s governor at AIIB, indicated that Egypt is seeking to use its membership of AIIB to strengthen multilateral development partnerships between the two continents of Africa and Asia, led by the private sector. Maait added that Egypt is looking to increase the investment portfolio with the AIIB which currently stands at $1.3 billion.

The meetings are expected to host around 3,000 influential international figures, including 106 finance ministers and central bank presidents.

Egypt has been developing its relationship with the AIIB since it joined the bank as a non-regional founding member in August 2016.