The ministry of finance is negotiating with several financial institutions including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the French Development Agency (AFD), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), over $1bn financing for the clean energy and electricity sector. The Minister of Finance, Mohamed Moeit, discussed with JICA representatives their future support for Egypt's energy sector, a Monday statement by the ministry said. The suggested funds from the international financial institutions are $800bn for Egypt's energy sector while the ministry requested to raise the funds to $1bn, the statement clarified. Both sides also discussed JICA's proposed programme for the modernisation of the comprehensive health insurance system in Egypt, which aims to enhance medical entities' management, in cooperation with health-specialised Japanese experts. The Japanese side affirmed its readiness to contribute in financing of new medical centres under the umbrella of the comprehensive health insurance system, the statement affirmed. Both sides discussed cooperating with the World Bank Group for a new budget support estimated at $500m that will be directed to the health care programmes, the statement noted, adding that JICA expressed its plans to offer $250m in funds for Egypt's health care system. Discussions touched upon the advantages of the Egypt's new comprehensive health insurance system that the country is currently adopting, in addition to exposing the economic reform programme updates and the state plan to control the debt levels and reducing them. The ministry of finance and JICA agreed to ink a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the implementation of the new cooperation in the health care and energy sectors, the statement affirmed. JICA invited Moeit to visit its headquarters during the G20 ministers of finance meeting which will take place in June in Japan. The Chief Representative of JICA Egypt office, Yoshifum Omura, said that energy represents the largest share of JICA's portfolio in Egypt with over $2bn in 17 projects, according to a previous statement. JICA focuses on energy projects that aim to increase energy production and promote energy efficiency, whereas before 2000, JICA mainly focused on increasing electricity supply to cope with increasing market demand. Energy efficiency needs to be comprehensively addressed with the necessary legal and institutional framework, human resources capacity, and financial instruments and incentives, Omura elaborated. On 26 February 2019, the ministry of electricity announced it is negotiating with JICA to obtain a $200m fund for enhancing energy efficiency of some industrial projects in Egypt.
