Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, held several bilateral meetings with economic leaders, within the framework of her visit to Singapore to attend the Bloomberg New Economy Forum that took place on 16-19 November. She met with former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and President of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Anthony Blair; the American Economist and the Founder of Bloomberg LP, Michael Bloomberg; the Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute, Deborah Lehr; CEO of the Angola Investment Authority, Antonio Silva; Vice President for Global Public Affairs International Organizations at Germany's Bayer AG Helga Flores Trejo; the CEO of Development Reimagined (DR), a pioneering international development consultancy in Beijing, Hannah Ryder; the Founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Arthur Bremmer; and Singapore's Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu; and Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, Gan Kim Yong. In her meeting with Blair, Al-Mashat discussed means of strengthening joint cooperation between the government and the institution, as well as means of enhancing Africa's integration through the programmes that the institution supports. She presented Egypt's economic, social and environmental reform programme that the government launched in 2014, under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and highlighted the role this programme has played in improving economic and social stability, supporting sustainable growth, and stimulating integration between Egypt and the region's countries in a way that propels efforts to maintain development and stability across the region. Furthermore, Al-Mashat held a meeting with the American Economist, Michael Bloomberg, to discuss the reforms implemented by the Government of Egypt across various fields; pushing forward the country's economic transformation into being the most prominent emerging country in the region. During this meeting, the Minister stressed that the economic and structural reforms implemented by the government allowed further investments across fields of sustainable infrastructure and green transformation for International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and the private sector. The Minister further referred to Egypt's hosting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) next year at Sharm El-Sheikh, which emphasizes the country's leadership and ambitious plans for advancing green transformation and supporting regional efforts to adapt to and mitigate the repercussions of climate change. For his part, Michael Bloomberg stressed the importance of strengthening the work of governments worldwide, in partnership with the private sector, to support green transformation and climate investments to implement the United Nations global goals. Moreover, Al-Mashat held a bilateral meeting with the Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute, Deborah Lehr, where they discussed means of enhancing joint cooperation within the framework of the research and think tanks' efforts to support global efforts aimed at achieving sustainable development and scaling up joint cooperation with relevant stakeholders on the regional and global levels. During this meeting, Minister Al-Mashat pinpointed the importance of the strategic Egyptian-American relations, as well as the deep Egyptian-Chinese relations, on the economic and development cooperation levels, through which the Government of Egypt's development efforts to achieve sustainable development and advance climate action have been supported. In that respect, the Minister stated that the Ministry of International Cooperation has signed 7 development financing grants this year, amounting to $125 m, to develop various high-priority sectors. The Minister also met with the CEO of the Angola Investment Authority, Antonio Silva; Vice President for Global Public Affairs International Organizations at Germany's Bayer AG Helga Flores Trejo; the CEO of Development Reimagined (DR), a pioneering international development consultancy in Beijing, Hannah Ryder; the Founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Arthur Bremmer; Singapore's Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu; and Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, Gan Kim Yong. During these meetings, Minister Al-Mashat discussed the opportunities of enhancing joint economic cooperation with African countries, within the framework of the Government of Egypt's tendency to achieve regional integration with Africa, and supporting development across African countries, as well as means of bolstering private sector's engagement in development. Not only that, the Minister also addressed cooperation in the field of sustainable agriculture, through benefiting from Egypt's experiences from partnering up with bilateral and multilateral development partners, such as the projects implemented with the World Food Programmeme (WFP) that are aimed at achieving agricultural development in a number of villages across Upper Egypt so as to increase farmers' incomes and enhance women's engagement in rural work, as well as to empower girls. This is in addition to establishing innovation and knowledge exchange centers, such as Luxor Center for Innovation, which is the first of its kind in Africa, and comes in light of the WFP's Centre of Excellence initiative that encompasses platforms allocated for achieving food security and addressing malnutrition among developing countries through the exchange of knowledge and expertise. Al-Mashat further presented the pillars of the "Decent Life' Presidential initiative, which is aimed at improving the living conditions of rural communities, and is one of Egypt's mega projects. This initiative is meant to benefit more than half of the Egyptian population through developing the infrastructure and investing in human capital. For her part, the CEO of Development Reimagined (DR), a pioneering international development consultancy in Beijing, Hannah Ryder, affirmed her aspiration for cooperating with Egypt on various levels, including exchanging mutual experiences and pushing forward sustainable development's efforts. Whereas for her part, Singapore's Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu, stated that she is looking forward to pushing forward the joint cooperation with Egypt and enhancing the private sector's engagement in high-priority sectors. Minister Al-Mashat had participated in the Bloomberg Summit for New Economies last year, which was held virtually. During the forum, Bloomberg chose Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as models for emerging economies in the region post the pandemic, as a result of the economic homegrown reforms and the opportunities that characterize both countries, despite the economic challenges on the regional and global level. The forum's current edition was inaugurated by the Vice President of China, where among the participants were Michael Maybach, Co-Founder and CEO of MasterCard, Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, and Dan Scholman, Founder and CEO of PayPal.
