The Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, discussed with the president of the World Bank Group (WBG), David Malpass, expanding fields of cooperation through future strategic partnership, during her current visit to the US, a ministerial statement said on Tuesday. Al-Mashat's meeting with Malpass took place in the presence of WBG's Vice President for Middle East and North Africa Farid Belhaj; WBG Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti, Marina Wes; and Ragui El-Etreby, Alternate Executive at the Board of the WBG. Al-Mashat touched on deepening the developmental and economic cooperation with the WBG in addition to boosting the group's portfolio in the fields of comprehensive health insurance, social housing projects, and documenting lands property in addition to financial inclusion and facing climate change. Al-Mashat asserted Egypt's keenness on continuing the dialogue with the WBG in light of the Egyptian government priorities regarding achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Cabinet formed two committees, the first is to manage public debt and set priorities of external borrowing for the best use of new developmental loans as decreasing public debt is a priority for the government. The second committee is responsible for implementing structural reforms, or the second wave of economic reform programme that Egypt began in 2016. The structural reforms aim at encouraging the private sector to boost its activities in developmental projects, Al-Mashat said, adding that Egypt is discussing future structural reforms with the WBG. Egypt has a strong national comprehensive programme to deal with population growth, as it's one of the major challenges in achieving development goals, Al-Mashat said, adding that this programme is implemented under the supervision of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and with the membership of a number of ministries including the ministries of International Cooperation, Health and Population, Social Solidarity, as well as Trade and Industry. Egypt aims at setting a comprehensive vision to improve population characteristics and empower women, in cooperation with development partners and civil society, Al-Mashat pointed out. For his part, Malpass assured the group's determination in boosting development frameworks with Egypt and supporting the Egyptian government to implement its priorities, praising Egypt's capability of coming over many economic difficulties during the past few years. Egypt succeeded in implementing the economic reform programme, which became a model for many developing countries, Malpass said, expressing his optimism about the country's structural reforms that aim at setting a proper environment for private sector activities. Both sides also discussed Egypt's ranking in WBG's Doing Business Report, the statement said, adding that WBG's portfolio in Egypt is worth $8bn.
