The Ministry of International Cooperation and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) agreed to finance 11 new projects worth €132.8 million in 2021.

This decision was announced during the bilateral round of talks, held this November virtually between the Egyptian and German governments, headed by Mona Ahmed, first under-secretary of the Ministry of International Cooperation, and Bernd Dönslav, director-general for the Middle East at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The talks were attended by 41 representatives from Egyptian ministries and government agencies, in addition to 31 representatives from German governmental and development institutions.

The projects come under the ministry’s Global Partnerships Narrative, which is defined by the triple Ps: people at the core, projects in action, and purpose as the driver to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, according to Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat.

Counting on the potential of Egyptian youth, the projects aim to promote technical and vocational education, enhance community participation, invest in job creation through supporting the private sector, and ensure environmental sustainability through promoting the sustainable management of water, said Al-Mashat.

 Coperation between Egypt and Germany falls under two categories. The first is through bilateral cooperation agreements, and the second through the debt swap programme, where the projects agreed upon in the first phase of the Egyptian-German debt swap programme are worth €70 million, according to the Ministry of International Cooperation.

In February, an executive contract for the joint Egyptian-German bilateral committee for renewable energy and energy efficiency, amounting to €15.5 million, was inled in favour of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy.

The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and Germany amounts to €1.7 billion, covering various sectors including irrigation, sanitation, energy, the private sector, urban development, small and medium enterprises, the environment, education, administrative reform, governance, agriculture and social protection.