The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Rania A. Al-Mashat, participated in the high-level session of the eighth UNIDO Forum for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) titled: “Partnerships for Socio-Economic Recovery.”

The meeting was attended by LI Yong, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Dr. Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), Zambian Minister of Trade and Industry Chipoka Mulenga, Minister of Finance of Ethiopia, Ahmed Shide, Lisel Huanca, Vice-Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Industry at the Ministry of Production of Peru, Adama Baye Racine Ndiaye, Secretary General of the Ministry of Industrial Development and Small and Medium Industry of the Government of Senegal, Robert Piper, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Development Coordination Office, Solomon Quaynor, Vice-President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization at the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Antti Karhunen, Director for Sustainable Finance, Investment and Jobs at the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission.

The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr Rania A. Al-Mashat, underlined the importance of the partnership framework with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) 2019-2024, commending UNIDO’s contribution to Egypt’s Vision 2030 and meeting national priorities by promoting comprehensive and sustainable industrial development and technically advanced industries.

Al-Mashat also referred to the valuable role of the United Nations in supporting the Egyptian government’s development priorities across various sectors in order to enhance national efforts to achieve sustainable development. The minister added that Egypt’s international partnerships are becoming stronger and play a key role in supercharging growth and expansion.

Al-Mashat said that Egypt withstood the repercussions of the pandemic due to the success of its reform program that was implemented from 2016-2019. Egypt also came out of the crisis with strong economic indicators, which manifested that reform is Egypt’s imperative to move forward and that it is an ongoing process.

In the face of numerous threats to food security, particularly weak supply chains and instability resulting from climate change, multilateralism has not become a choice, but an urgency to scale up impact and receive mutual benefits, which is why strengthening supply chains has become one of Egypt’s top priorities.

The minister noted that Egypt is riding the waves of digital transformation by inaugurating the New Administrative Capital, which will be Egypt’s first smart city. The city will be equipped with smart infrastructure to provide various services, such as smart monitoring of traffic congestion and accidents, smart utilities to reduce consumption and cost, smart buildings and energy management as well as using IoT to save power consumption.

Reflecting on the role of the Ministry of International Cooperation to bring together all stakeholders through multi-stakeholder platforms, the Ministry held a multi-stakeholder platform with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology this year to advance cooperation for the Digital Egypt Strategy.

Pushing the frontiers of collaboration and transparent governance through Economic Diplomacy, the Ministry is working on three key principles to strengthen Egypt’s inclusive multilateral engagement with development partners, governments, global policy makers, private sector and the civil society to effectively deliver the 2030 National Agenda, consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals: 1) organizing multi-stakeholder platforms, 2) ODA-SDG mapping, and 3) the global partnerships narrative.

The minister noted that Egypt is looking to increase the participation of the private sector in development through the implementation of structural reforms that create an enabling environment for all actors to participate and act as partners in the development process.

Last April, Egypt signed with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization the new Country Partnership Program (PCP), which spans five years, and thus becoming the seventh country in the world and the second in the Arab region to start implementing this program to enhance industrial development and develop industrial cities.

Last year, the Ministry of International Cooperation launched – in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) – a short film on the Creative Mediterranean project, as part of the Ministry’s Global Partnerships Narrative that aims to showcase Egypt’s success stories with development partners across various sectors through videos, stories, and field visits.