Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, met with Vice Presidents of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ludger Schuknecht, Vice President for Infrastructure Investment and Executive Secretary of the Bank, and Konstantin Lemitovsky, Vice President for Investment Operations. The meeting took place during her participation in the activities of the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Sharm El-Sheikh from May 22-26. During the meeting, the Minister expressed the government's appreciation for the distinguished partnership between Egypt and the bank since it became a member in 2016. The bank's development financing portfolio in Egypt amounts to about $1.3 billion, and the partnership resulted in the implementation of a number of development projects in vital areas, such as the Benban solar power plant in Aswan. The two sides also discussed the foundations of the future partnership between Egypt and the bank. Al-Mashat stressed the importance of the projects included in the future partnership portfolio, including the project to develop the Abu Qir railway line in Alexandria and convert it into an electric metro. She referred to the deep cooperation between Egypt and the bank and the preparations for holding the annual meetings of the bank in Egypt in September. For their part, representatives of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank expressed their appreciation for the strategic partnership with Egypt and their keenness to diversify areas of cooperation and expand in various priority sectors for the country. At the conclusion of the meetings, the two sides signed an agreement to abandon the reference interest rate "LIBOR," which is the approach adopted by other international institutions. Egypt is the largest contributor from Africa and the first founding member of the continent in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
