Egypt President calls on international community to support global green recovery
CAIRO, Egypt, 8 September 2021: H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
today called upon the international community to unite and spark a "green
recovery”.
Speaking on the first day of the
inaugural Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt – ICF), launched by the Ministry of International Cooperation, taking
place in Cairo between 8-9 September, El-Sisi said: "No government alone can
make this recovery possible. It requires the support of the international
community and financial institutions to achieve the UN SDGs.”
Also at the event, H.E. Dr. Rania A.
Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, said: "This is a
unique opportunity for Egypt to reset global priorities and place
sustainability at the core of economic development.”
"We launched the Egypt – ICF to
provide a global platform to catalyze international cooperation as we rebuild
from the pandemic. By increasing multi-stakeholder engagement and cooperation,
we can pave the way for more inclusive, greener, and more resilient economies that
work for everyone.”
Later at the event, during a panel
on multilateralism, Solomon Quaynor, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Vice
President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization said:
"Egypt is uniquely positioned to be a regional hub for vaccine production.”
"A successful vaccination campaign
[in Africa] could help realize the benefits of the African Continental Free
Trade Area – a single market with 1.2 billion people and $3.4 trillion in gross
domestic product.”
During a panel that addressed the
urgent need to unlock international development funds, Jorge Moreira da Silva,
Director OECD Development Co-operation Directorate said: "It is critical to
mobilize one percent of US$379 trillion. But it cannot be done without a holistic
approach. It is important to emphasize the role of multilateralism.”
In a panel
session dedicated to combatting climate change, Mr. Selwin Charles Hart,
Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action Panelists,
described the world as being on a "climate cliff” as it gets dangerously close
to not meeting the 1.5 degrees Celsius Paris Agreement goal, if "we don’t take
ambitious action now.”
The Forum
also heard from H.E. Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Egypt’s Minister of Environment, who
said: "Climate change is not an environmental challenge. Climate challenge is a
developmental challenge. It hits hard all development processes. It doesn’t
differentiate between a rich, poor or developing country.”