AIIB’s 8th annual meetings to kick off in Africa for the first time tomorrow

The world’s eyes will be focused on the city of Sharm El-Sheikh in the next few hours. The flags of 106 countries are waving over the city of Peace and Hope to reflect a new economic reality based on intercontinental connectivity to achieve sustainable and comprehensive development.

Economic, political and development circles are anticipating AIIB’s annual meetings which will be hosted by Egypt and held in Africa for the first time on Monday. The event will sponsored by president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi amid an international attention reflecting the economic and political and development weight of Egypt.

The last few hours saw the arrival of delegations participating in the event. They include some of the world’s most economically influential figures such as finance ministers and central bank presidents, in addition to representatives of 160 local and international media outlets coming to cover the deliberations of AIIB’s meetings.

The sessions will tackle key issues under important titles  like “Guranteeing an international governance for the sake of across-the-border sustainable development “, “Building partnerships to support the world’s health infrastructure”, “Mobilising resources to finance climate-centered activities”, “Reinforcing the role of the private sector in the area of electronic services in Asia and Africa”, “Creative partnerships to confront world challenges”, “Sustainable finance in infrastructure through sustainable development bonds”, “Reinforcing communications in a world full of challenges”, “Mobilising resources and creative finance to bridge the gap in funding infrastructure projects in the Middle East and Africa” , and seminars on multilateral cooperation to finance joint development projects between AIIB and Egypt: across-the-border infrastructure…the future of finance mobilization trends, “good international practices in implementing and supervising projects”, and “Economic inclusion in infrastructure: challenges and opportunities”, in addition to other sessions which represent an important international platform.

Finance minister and Egypt’s governor at AIIB affirmed that Egypt is opening up to the world to seek partnerships stimulating sustainable development and in a way that shows more understanding of the current global exceptional circumstances and more responsive to the needs of emerging economies. He said Egypt is cooperating with AIIB to build across-the-border development partnerships led by the private sector and in a way that can lead to greater bilateral development cooperation and increase AIIB’S investments which currently stand at $ 1.3 billion in Egypt, We are looking forward to broader horizons in which Egypt’s support for the private sector and shift to the green economy will be integrated with AIIB’s strategy of investment in infrastructure and in a way that will be translated into more sustainable development projects in high priority areas such as new and renewable energy, clean transport, water..etc..and in a way that will contribute to improving the living of citizens and services offered to them.

Finance minister and Egypt’s governor at AIIB said multilateral development cooperation is considered “the secret world” leading to economic recovery in a world full of challenges. Access to international finance markets have become more difficult and costly and so there are a lot of finance gaps. The development process requires huge finance while emerging economies are suffering from expensive bills to meet the citizens’ basic needs of energy and food. He also indicated that Egypt’s strategic geographical location make it qualified to play a pivotal and influential role in achieving connectivity between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. This goes in line with the state’s policy of turning into a regional and international hub for production and exports, making use of ingredients that make the Egyptian economy has competitive and preferential edges based on infrastructure that is strong and capable to meet the requirements of expanding on investment projects and attractive incentives to the private sector like the Golden license.

Finance Minister and Egypt’s governor to AIIB also urged the private sector to make use of finance opportunities offered by AIIB in a number of promising sectors and to concluded more partnerships. He said we have high hopes that the next stage will see all benefitting from AIIB’s great experience and potentials to widen the scope and size of infrastructure projects as these represent the nerve of the economic, social and development life.

Finance and Egypt’s governor at AIIB Mohamed Maait added that creative finance solutions represent “a lifeline” for developing countries against internal and external shocks. We have high hopes that international multilateral development institutions will play greater role in standing up to global challenges, and in this respect Egypt is adopting the African causes in international circles and in a way that reflect the development needs of our African brothers.