H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation, received Ms. Reem Alabali-Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, at the Government Headquarters in New Alamein City during her visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt, within the framework of strengthening bilateral economic cooperation between the two countries. The meeting comes as a follow-up to the fruitful discussions held during the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (Ff4D) in Seville, Spain.
At the beginning of the meeting, H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat welcomed the German Minister on her first visit to Egypt and wished her success in her mission in the new German government, emphasizing the Arab Republic of Egypt’s appreciation for for the Egyptian-German economic relations, which represent a strategic partnership that reflects the keenness to advancing mutual interests and promoting development efforts, whether through bilateral governmental partnership, German investments in Egypt, and development cooperation efforts, adding that this visit marks a milestone in the process of cooperation between the two countries and reflects the depth of bilateral relations and common vision towards achieving sustainable development and economic growth.
The two ministers discussed recent developments in Egyptian-German economic and investment relations, joint development projects, and explored new mechanisms for innovative financing, especially in light of the outcomes of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development held in Seville, Spain, and the need for the international community to contribute more to financing development in developing countries and emerging economies. They also discussed the implementation of the European Investment Guarantee Mechanism (EFSD+), which comes in light of the Egypt-EU strategic partnership and contributes to increasing foreign direct investments to the local and foreign private sector in Egypt, in addition to the preparations for the convening of the 2025 Egyptian-German governmental negotiations.
The two sides also discussed the outcomes of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, noting the importance of implementing recommendations of the UN expert group report on addressing debt challenges in Global South countries, which included 11 outcomes, such as redirecting and replenishing existing resources from multilateral development banks and the IMF to enhance liquidity, adopting policies to extend maturities, financing debt buybacks, reducing debt servicing during crises, reforming the G20 Common Framework to include all middle-income countries, and updating IMF and World Bank debt sustainability analysis (DSA) to better reflect the situation of low- and middle-income countries, among other measures.
The Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation also reviewed the key features of Egypt’s national narrative for economic development, which aims to achieve a structural transformation in the Egyptian economy towards tradable and exportable sectors by strengthening macroeconomic policies, encouraging foreign direct investment, promoting industrial development, and supporting labor market and employment policies, noting that Egyptian-German relations are reflected in achieving these objectives.
In this context, H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat praised the success of the Egyptian-German Debt Swap Program, where the Egyptian government succeeded in signing debt swap agreements with a total value of €340 million to finance various development projects across multiple sectors, including the new tranche of the debt swap program worth €100 million for the period 2024–2026, explaining that the program contributed to using the local currency equivalents of debt repayments to implement development projects in various sectors, including education and technical education, social protection, health, improving renewable energy supply. Ongoing coordination is underway to allocate €50 million from the program to support the energy pillar of the “NWFE” program, financing part of the local component for connecting ACWA Power (1) and (2) wind farms, with a total capacity of 1,100 MW. She reaffirmed that the Egyptian-German Debt Swap Program is a successful model for promoting financing for development.
The discussion also touched on the Financial Cooperation Agreement between Egypt and Germany, which was signed on May 25, 2025, and includes a €118 million financing package in the form of concessional financing and financial contributions (complementary grants), and includes funding for the following projects: financial support for the Comprehensive Technical Education Initiative and the support for the establishment of 25 Egyptian Centers of Excellence. In the same context, the two sides also discussed the the status of the governmental negotiations to be held between the Egyptian and German sides at the end of this year, expressing their aspiration to enhance economic and development cooperation between the two governments, as well as allocating new financial contributions to finance development projects aimed at driving economic growth.
Furthermore, H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat pointed out that, In light of the success of the country platform for the “NWFE” program and the international community’s expansion of the concept of national platforms to mobilize investments, work is currently underway, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and other development partners, to launch the first national platform to mobilize financing and technical support for the industrial sector. This aligns with the national narrative for economic development to support the state’s efforts in localizing industry and encouraging domestic production, noting that the narrative sets a unified vision for the Egyptian economy to shift towards tradable sectors.
H.E. also highlighted the importance of strengthening South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation through German collaboration to stimulate efforts to transfer Egyptian expertise in the field of development to developing and emerging countries, noting Egypt’s keenness to advance the prospects of joint cooperation in the field of water within the “NWFE” program with the German side.
For her part, the German Minister expressed her aspiration to build on the Egyptian-German strategic relations and the progress achieved in recent years to further advance joint cooperation in light of regional and global challenges.
In the same context, the two sides addressed the Egyptian-German economic cooperation portfolio, which currently amounts to approximately €1.6 billion, aiming to implement various development projects across priority sectors that contribute to sustainable economic development including energy, climate, water supply, sanitation, irrigation, migration, solid waste management, and enhancing the competitiveness of the private sector, which are funded through multiple mechanisms, such as the Egyptian-German Debt Swap Program, concessional financing, financial contributions, and technical cooperation grants.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation – Egypt.