African
Development Bank (AfDB) Vice-President responsible for Sectoral
Operations, Aly Abou-Sabaa, as head of the major delegation dispatched
by the Bank to Sharm el-Sheikh to attend the Egyptian Economic
Development Conference (EEDC), addressed a large audience on Day 2 of
the event, Saturday, March 14, 2015.
In
the presence of the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation,
Naglaa El-Ahwany, Abou-Sabaa was speaking as part of a high-level panel
of representatives of international financial institutions, on the theme
of "How can Egypt's economic development be effectively supported?
Views and perspectives".
In
addition to the AfDB Vice-President, Jin Yong Cai, Senior
Vice-President and CEO, International Finance Corporation (IFC), World
Bank Group; Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Director General and Chairman, Arab Fund
for Economic and Social Development (FADES), Kuwait; Ambroise Fayolle,
Vice-President, European Investment Bank (EIB); and Hafez Ghanem, Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) Region Vice-President, World Bank, made up
this roundtable.
To
his peers from international financial institutions (IFIs) and to the
entire audience attending the debate – representatives from the public
and private sectors – the AfDB Vice-President called for Egypt to be
supported in its growth pathway. Emphasising that Egypt is "the
second-largest shareholder in the African Development Bank" and that it
had undertaken many reforms, Abou-Sabaa said, "We at AfDB are ready to
work with the Egyptian Government on the reforms to which it has
committed, especially since bold, courageous measures are needed." He
went on to speak of the need to ensure "alignment with the Government's
priorities" intended to promote inclusive growth.
Abou-Sabaa
also referred to the sizeable contracts currently being negotiated in
Egypt for large-scale projects. In a reference to public-private
partnerships (PPP), a somewhat new mode of financing in Egypt, he said
how important it was to learn from experience across the continent –
such as the AfDB, which has developed nearly 50 PPPs in Africa since
2006.
To
illustrate the support of the AfDB to Egypt, Abou-Sabaa recalled the
approximately US $500 million the Bank has committed for 2015 and
emphasized the role that could be played by Africa50, the dedicated
infrastructure fund targeting the private sector. The AfDB
Vice-President also announced that an AfDB delegation would meet
Egyptian authorities shortly to discuss the "best way of targeting
investments.”
The
economic reform programme that the Egyptian authorities launched in
July 2014 should bear fruit in 2015, according to projections: Growth
should reach 3.3% in 2015, against 2.5% in 2014, and the budget deficit
should be 10%, against 12% in 2014.
The
EEDC, which opened on Friday, March 13, closed on Sunday, March 15.
More than 2,000 leading figures from all over the world – ministers,
heads of government, senior officials, leaders of multilateral
development banks and financial institutions, CEOs of multinationals,
development economics experts, and more – were in attendance. The goal
of the international conference was to capture the interest of investors
and set out the vision for the future economy of the country.
Source: AFDB
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