Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat presented, on Wednesday, the results of the periodic monitoring of national projects to the House of Representatives’ plenary session.
The session was chaired by the newly elected parliamentary speaker Hanafi Gebali. During the presentation, Minister Al-Mashat said that her ministry has, since the beginning of 2020, made several strides in its structural reforms and restructuring. This has taken place in order for the Ministry to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in following up on ongoing projects.
It comes as part of the Ministry of International Cooperation’s Presidential Decree No. 303 of 2004, which is to follow-up and monitor national agencies that benefit from foreign development financing. The reviews form an important part of Egypt’s general economic policy to achieve national development priorities.
“The reorganisation of the General Administration responsible for the supervision of the projects financed by Egypt’s development partners is crucial to increase their efficiency,” the minister said, “Moreover, 98% of the financed projects are progressing adequately, as per planned.
The Minister added that in the period from March to December 2020, the Ministry of International Cooperation organised several multi-stakeholder platforms to bring together all multilateral and bilateral partners.
This has allowed for coordination to streamline development goals according to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is then periodically presented to the Prime Minister to review challenges and progress.
Minister Al-Mashat noted that the results of the periodic meetings and monitoring revealed that in January 2020, 28% of projects faced challenges in their implementation. By the end of December 2020, this decreased to only 2%, and that about 98% of the projects are on the right track in implementation with no constraints.
According to the Ministry of International Cooperation’s 2020 annual report, the ministry secured development financing agreements worth $9.8bn. Of this amount, $6.7bn went to financing sovereign projects, and $3.1bn went to supporting Egypt’s private sector.
