Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat met with the new Director General of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the Middle East and Europe Toyama Kei as he started his duties. They discussed and reviewed the ongoing development cooperation portfolio. The minister said that the annual report of the Ministry of International Cooperation for 2023 showed the volume and variety of ongoing cooperation with Japan in many sectors. Al-Mashat mentioned the launch of the Hafiz platform that enables Egypt's private sector to access various financing and support services. It is the first integrated platform that offers all financial and non-financial services from development partners to the private sector, whether large, medium, small-sized, or emerging companies. She said that the funds and support from JICA will be added to the platform for different companies. The Minister said that the ongoing development cooperation portfolio with JICA has many projects that should be highlighted as successful examples of cooperation between Egypt and Japan, and show the two countries' interest to improve joint economic cooperation. The recent visit of the Japanese Prime Minister to Cairo was a turning point in bilateral relations between the two countries through the agreement to upgrade relations between the two countries to a strategic partnership, as a result of the long and rich cooperation process, the minister said. According to Al-Mashat, Japan is one of the most important Asian development partners for Egypt, as the development cooperation portfolio has more than 18 development projects to support the government's plan to achieve sustainable development goals, with a value of about $3.9bn from 2010 until now. Also, many development grants in fields of health, education, energy, electricity, transportation, civil aviation, tourism, antiquities, irrigation, and education, to support sustainable economic growth, social inclusion, education development, human resources development, regional cooperation, and the national strategy to fight climate change. An annual high-level policy dialogue was held this year between the Egyptian and Japanese sides at the Ministry of International Cooperation to discuss proposals for future cooperation and technical cooperation, according to the development pillars and Egypt's Vision 2030, considering the role of the Ministry in coordinating between government agencies and multilateral and bilateral development partners.
