President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will participate in the G20 and Africa’s events that is held during the period November 19- 21,2019, as the President of the African Union in 2019, in the presence of the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and other partners .

 

The President is scheduled to hold a series of important meetings on the sidelines of the visit, including an Egyptian-German summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel, besides a number of leaders and heads of international organizations participating in the meeting.

President's visit will also witness the signing, on Tuesday 19th November, of an agreement worth 154 million euros to invest in the new and renewable energy, environmental protection, the economics of solid waste and technical education .

 

President Sisi will also attend the joint Egyptian-German Business Forum, which aims to create a constructive dialogue between Egyptian companies and their German counterparts in order to establish new joint projects in the common interest of both sides .

 

 

In 2017, Germany's Presidency of the G-20 launched an initiative to support development in African countries under the theme of the "G20 Agreement with Afric".

 

The agreement brings the concerned African countries together, the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and other bilateral and multilateral partners, with a view to articulating and supporting policies and measures necessary to attract private investment .

 

So far, ten countries have joined the initiative, setting out their reform aspirations and programs under a framework adopted by the G20 finance ministers in March 2017 .

 

This agreement differs from previous initiatives in that it has a clear and explicit focus on facilitating private investment .

 

Rather than relying on public aid flows, it seeks to create new momentum within which African governments are working with their partners to direct reforms needed to attract domestic and foreign private investment .

 

The agreement reflects the scarcity of public resources, and that private sector-led growth alone can meet the hopes and aspirations of the black continent and its young people for providing adequate and remunerative jobs .

 

Initial reform proposals in these countries encouraged development partners to provide new and additional technical and operational support .

 

Although, it’s important for countries to reach their goals, to move from actions centered on governments and traditional donor groups to deeper dialogue and more dynamic interaction with the private sector .

 

Partner countries, particularly G20 governments, can facilitate this by encouraging and stimulating their private sector to show greater interest in opportunities in African economies .

G20 Compact with Africa meetings

The meeting of the G20 Compact with Africa is a platform that aims at accelerating the flow of investments and boosting economic growth and joint prosperity among the African countries. During the meetings President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will focus on issues that interest the African continent, notably issues related to the importance of enhancing the international efforts to facilitate the integration of developing countries in the world economy, as it offers opportunities and benefits that contribute in achieving economic growth.

The G20 Compact with Africa meetings will be held in Germany during the period November 20-21,2019, with the participation of President El Sisi, who carries the two files concerning the African continent development and the bilateral relations with Berlin, in the light of Egypt’s presidency of the African Union.

This responsibility opens new horizons to make a better future for the peoples of the continent and helps in achieving the developmental priorities in the framework of Africa 2063 agenda, based on the tight and developing relations between Egypt and Germany and the two countries’ importance regionally and internationally.

The African file includes the president’s participation in the G20 Compact with Africa meetings, which is launched by the German presidency in 2017 on the sidelines of the G20 meetings. It aims at boosting development in African countries and attracting investments to Africa during Germany’s presidency of the G20 and Egypt’s presidency of the African Union. The file also includes holding bilateral meetings with heads of the African countries on the sideline of the meeting.

The launch of G20 Compact with Africa is an appreciation to Egypt’s pivotal role in region and on the international and African levels, especially after assuming the presidency of the African Union currently.  On its part the German foreign affairs confirmed the importance of the G20 Compact with Africa in supporting economic cooperation between Africa and the G20, by announcing projects that contribute to accelerating development in the continent, as the G20 are the world’s largest economies.

During the visit an agreement worth 154 million euro will be signed to invest in new and renewable energy, environment protection, economics of solid waste and vocational education. In addition, a series of important meetings will be held with German officials, businessmen and investors, where German companies give great importance to know the investment climate in Egypt, especially after the economic reforms that the Egyptian government have taken, which these companies find very good.

The meetings desired results

- The participating countries are to reach an agreement of following sound macroeconomic policies, investing in building the capabilities of the state and promoting governance systems and good governance.

- The participating countries and their partners are to use the recommendations of the meetings in making diagnostic studies on obstacles facing the private sector. This will happen by having a systematic continuous open dialogue between the private sector local and foreign actors to determine the required additional reforms to reduce country risk and overcoming its obstacles.

- The G20 participating countries are to encourage their private sectors entitirs to engage with the countries of the agreement to help in changing the risk perceptions and determining the new investment opportunities.

- The international financial institutions like the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other development finance institutions are to promote new investments with available tools in the countries that have high risks.

G20 and Africa

The African countries are taking serious measures towards achieving sustainable and comprehensive development in the framework of 2063 Agenda. In this context, they seek to make successful partnerships with international and regional finance institutions to achieve their local development agenda, by providing the needed fund for infrastructure and continental connectivity projects, which aim at creating a local and foreign investment attractive climate. 

During the period June 12 – 13,2017 the G20 partnership with Africa summit was held, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel received, in Berlin, a number of African leaders. Germany took the opportunity of its presidency of the G20 to attract investments towards Africa as a basic step to reduce immigration to Europe.

The G20 misters of finance called on, during a summit in March, their counterparts in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda and Tunisia to join this partnership which will be called “Compact with Africa”. Leaders of Ghana, Ethiopia, Niger, Egypt and Mali also joined the two-day Berlin summit with international finance institutions which are supposed to provide technical support to these countries in their reforms. This has become a pressing issue for the European Union, which seems unable to stop the flow of immigrants mostly coming from sub-Saharan African countries, who cross to the Italian coasts through Libya that has conflicts since ousting El Gaddaffi regime.  Merkel sees that the only way to stop this flow is to solve the reasons of immigration and find solutions for these peoples in their countries.

Mini-Summit of the African leaders

Activities of the African mini-summit, attended by the African presidents and premiers, who are members of the G20 Africa Partnership Initiative, launched in Berlin the German capital on 27th October, 2018, in the framework of the G20 Summit. The meeting came upon an invitation from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The African countries paid highly attention to the German initiative which joined by 11 African countries; Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Togo, as well as South Africa.

The African mini-summit is a German initiative for partnership with the African countries launched during Germany’s presidency of the G20, the biggest group of economies in the world, in order to expand economic cooperation with the African continent. The initiative gives the African states the opportunity to lure private investments including those in infrastructure fields.

According to the initiative, the African countries can collaborate with the development partners and international financial organizations, which are expertise in investment in Africa, such as the African Development Bank (ADF), the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Moreover, they are aware of the continent’s especial conditions and required procedures for each country.

Egypt and the support of growth in Africa

Egypt has been observing very closely the reform efforts adopted by the African countries and working currently on implementing reform steps which are different from its local priorities. However, the steps are coping with joint African goals towards achieving comprehensive sustainable growth that benefit the African peoples and contribute to raising their standard of living. This will enhance cooperation and coordination to develop the promising land of Africa to be a land of growth and prosperity.

In this context, Cairo and Berlin affirmed their keenness on boosting cooperation in various domains. Therefore, President El Sisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a telephone call yesterday confirmed that the two sides are looking forward to constant work to promote their remarkable relations on all levels that will contribute to strengthening bilateral relations, especially with regard to joint development cooperation.

The African file includes the participation of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in the G20 and Africa meetings, which were launched by the German presidency in 2017 on the sidelines of the group’s meetings, in order to support development and lure investments in the African countries. This is during the German presidency of the G20 and in light of the Egyptian presidency of the African Union (AU).

The two leaders are keen on holding bilateral meetings with presidents and leaders of the countries of the continent on the sidelines of the summit.

The initiative comes in the framework of the key role played by Egypt in the region on the African and global levels, especially during its presidency of the Union this year.

On the other hand, the German Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of the G20 initiative for supporting economic cooperation between Africa and the G20, one of the most prominent economic group, by launching projects that contribute to accelerating the growth of the continent.

 

Egypt has a comprehensive vision of the African continent by launching investment opportunities offered by the African continent in various sectors. Egypt also considers economic integration and cooperation among African countries are vital to achieve the African Development Agenda 2063.

 

Egypt enjoys well-known potentials, opportunities, support of the African countries’ leaders as well as strong relation with the continent. In addition, Egypt signs agreements of trade and investment and joins strong economic blocs with Africa to pave the way for the international institutions and investors from all over the world to implement projects and benefit from the young population, available resources, and the location making Africa in the heart of the world.

President El Sisi stressed that the sustainable growth is essential to the African peoples. The desired development will be achieved by enhancing cooperation, exerting efforts, boosting trade and investment and promoting the private sector in the continent, the president added.

El Sisi highlighted the importance of sincere political will to support efforts for reform and use the potential and competitive characteristics of the continent to achieve the sustainable development.  The most important attribute in Africa is the young population, which encourages continuous investment in the Human Resources in varies fields of health, education, training for leaderships as well as polishing skills.      

- President El Sisi arrived in Berlin  Today to attend the G20 and Africa meetings.

Monday 18^th November 2019

President El Sisi received this morning at his residence Eckart von Kleiden, Vice President of the German "Mercedes-Benz" for the automotive industry, the meeting witnessed a review of the plans of the company "Mercedes-Benz" to cooperate with Egypt, especially in the field of modern systems and modernization of mass transit means and various vehicles, whether electric And gas-powered ones.