Minister of Environmental Affairs Yasmine Fouad met on Wednesday with Bernd Donuzlav, head of Middle East and North African cooperation at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to discuss Egyptian-German cooperation in the field of solid waste management and biological diversity. During the meeting, the minister praised the level of cooperation with Germany through the National Solid Waste Management Programme (NSWMP) which has an estimated cost of €77.9 m. The programme is implemented in four governorates; Kafr El Sheikh, Gharbia, Qena, and Assiut, and aims to develop its municipal solid waste system and raise its efficiency. The programme also provides technical support to those governorates and following up the implementation of infrastructure projects such as recycling plants, landfills and intermediate stations, as well as following up the operational plans for the equipment. The German side praised the NSWMP and Egypt's current cooperation, expressing its aspiration to continue cooperating in the programme's second phase, and to invest in the field of waste management. They also offered to strengthen cooperation with Egypt regarding the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity as Egypt is the current president of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP14). They also suggested involving China in the cooperation, as Beijing is the following president for the convention, to form a tripartite cooperation to continue advancing the efforts of the convention and the future of biological diversity, as well as promote and strengthen the green lists of protected areas.
