Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat met on Sunday with Japanese Ambassador to Egypt Masaki Noke to discuss Egyptian-Japanese economic relations and future development cooperation projects. The meeting came as part of ongoing meetings held by Al-Mashat with multilateral and bilateral development partners, which tackle the progress of the ongoing partnerships to implement Egypt's development vision. Japan supports Egypt's development vision and its quest to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) through concessional development financing agreements across many sectors, including transport, tourism and antiquities, according to the minister. The meeting discussed partnership in 2021, as Japan seeks to contribute to Egypt's strategy targeting the upgrading of the transport sector, particularly underground metro lines, in addition to the comprehensive health insurance project that shall boost the health care system for citizens. They also discussed the recent development cooperation agreements, namely the agreement to increase the value of a grant provided by the Japanese government to Egypt, worth $19 million, to establish an outpatient clinic building of the Abu Al-Rish Japanese Hospital. The Japanese government further provided development financing worth $9 million in support of Egypt's strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which entails the provision of medical equipment to Egypt's chest hospitals, as well as the signing of an energy support policy agreement worth $236 million. This comes in light of the cooperation portfolio between Egypt and Japan, which started in 1954 and involves many targeted sectors. The current portfolio of economic cooperation between the two countries amounts to about $2.8 billion dedicated for the implementation of 14 projects.
