Egypt is committed to supporting comprehensive and sustainable development in the world, especially in Africa and Asia, and looks forward to a greater role for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and other multilateral institutions in financing emerging and developing economies, said Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance and Governor of Egypt at the AIIB.
Maait made these remarks at the opening session of the annual meetings of the AIIB in Sharm El-Sheikh, which were attended by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Monday. He said that Egypt, with its African roots and its connection to Asia through the Sinai Peninsula, supports all efforts to overcome global challenges and achieve international economic justice.
He praised the AIIB as an important and effective development partner for Egypt, with an investment portfolio of about $1.3bn so far, and potential opportunities for more than $1bn in various sectors, relying on the private sector to improve the efficiency of infrastructure. He said that the AIIB provides a real opportunity for the Egyptian private sector to achieve economic sustainability, which aligns with the government’s vision of making the private sector the engine of growth.
He expressed Egypt’s keenness to deepen bilateral cooperation with the AIIB in various sectors, and to increase the participation of the private sector in green economy projects, climate change mitigation, and technological infrastructure, by mobilizing financial resources for private investments. He added that Egypt also supports multilateral development partnerships by benefiting from the international event of the AIIB, which has become the second-largest multilateral bank in the world, with 232 projects worth $44bn in 35 countries.
Maait said that Egypt is moving steadily towards supporting the strategies and objectives of the AIIB, as it is one of the first founding countries and the largest and most important contributor from the African continent to the bank, with a financing share of $650m.
