Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, has met with Frank Hartmann, the new German Ambassador in Cairo, to discuss areas of cooperation between the two sides and the updates of the ongoing projects in light of Egypt’s development priorities.
The meeting comes within the framework of the Ministry of International Cooperation’s keenness to follow up on the ongoing development cooperation portfolio with multilateral and bilateral development partners, and to coordinate with stakeholders to ensure the value-centric results harnessed through the projects carried out with development partners.
Al-Mashat praised the strategic partnership between Egypt and Germany, which aims to enhance national efforts to achieve development in various sectors, including providing employment opportunities, enhancing infrastructure, and developing education; all to support the implementation of Egypt’s 2030 Vision. One project worth mentioning is the integrated system of a high-speed electric railway network allocated to the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) in cooperation with the German company Siemens. The project includes three lines: First line (Ain Sokhna – Matrouh); second line (6th of October – Aswan); and third line (Qena – Safaga).
Al-Mashat also discussed the third and final tranche worth €80m of the second phase of the debt swap programme with Germany, and the projects to be implemented across different sectors, on top of them is the National School Nutrition Programme which will be carried out in cooperation with the World Food Program (WFP) to combat school dropout and child labour.
For his part, the German ambassador praised the depth of the economic cooperation between Egypt and Germany, alluding to the successful ongoing projects that are being implemented in cooperation between the two countries, primarily the Egyptian-German Center for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (EGC), which was established last year with a development financing worth €2m, earmarked for the Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates’ Affairs in cooperation with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
The meeting raised the importance of arranging field visits to the most prominent projects brought about through the cooperation between Egypt and Germany to present success stories and elucidate the profound effect these projects have with regards to improving the Egyptians’ livelihoods and advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Noteworthy, Egypt’s ongoing cooperation portfolio with Germany amounts to €1.7bn benefiting 30 projects through funds and technical assistance grants. The projects covered a wide array of sectors; namely renewable energy, sanitation, water resource and solid waste management, migration, labor market, innovation in the private sector, technical education, vocational training, urban development, administrative reform, women, youth, and local development. This is in addition to €240m debt-swap programme between Germany and Egypt.
