African Development Bank Group, sponsored by Egypt, for the green transformation
Egyptian-sponsored African Development Bank Group for the Green Transition
In the presence of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, theCentral Bank of Egypt hosted the conference“Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group”, which will be held from May 22 to May 26, 2023 in Sharm El-Sheikh, in which the host country - Egypt - began the first activities of the conference through a symposium Titled: Mobilizing blended finance to facilitate the green transition in emerging economies.
This symposium was held - yesterday, Monday - under the supervision of Alieu Maiga, Director of the African Financial Institutions Group at the International Finance Corporation, and with the participation of Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, Central Bank Governor Hassan Abdullah, and Mahmoud Mohieldin, the climate leader for the Egyptian presidency, and the United Nations Special Envoy for FinancingAgenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, Mohamed Farid, Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority, and George Elombi, Vice President of the African Export-Import Bank, in addition to representatives of financial institutions from all over the world.
This symposium was a good introduction to the conference, as the discussions included talk about the obstacles that stand between multilateral development banks and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), regionally and globally. Therefore, these discussions dealt with ways to adopt the blended financing structure necessary to enhance the transition of emerging economies to low-carbon economies, as the participants pointed to methods for overcoming these and similar obstacles, noting the role of international banks, and the great importance of local authorities in emerging countries, as they are a major financier of large-scale investments. Until the green transformation becomes a reality in all fields.
In addition to these multiple challenges, the participants touched on the challenges facing private sector investments in emerging countries, and how the difficulties facing blended finance can be overcome, and this before their discussions revolved around explaining the importance of public-private sector partnerships, and their role in reducing multiple climate risks, while providing means of supervision and monitoring. To ensure the efficiency and transparency of blended finance. Not only that, but the discussants called for mobilizing and supporting such partnerships, to address the phenomenon of lack of financing for climate adaptation projects, and also reviewed the steps of some developing countries. To evaluate them in terms of these countries’ commitments towards climate change, and to identify the most important lessons learned from them.
Symposium:Mobilizing Blended FinanceTo Facilitate the Green Transition in Emerging Economies - is considered a bridge for presenting innovative views and exchanging experiences capable of supporting African transition efforts towards a more sustainable economy; So that these experiences and these opinions are a call to help economic growth in emerging countries and provide promising investment opportunities, which is confirmed by blended finance, which is capable of creating a balance between the two sides of the equation: risks and returns on investments. This enables multilateral development banks - as well as international financial institutions - to support these emerging economies. To be ready for the green transformation and ready to adapt to the changing climate.
It is noteworthy that the 2023 meetings of the African Development Bank are an exceptional event, and this was confirmed by the Governor of the Central Bank, expressing his appreciation to the officials of the annual meetings for their efforts, praising the importance of this year’s topic; That is: mobilizing private sector finance for climate and green growth; Pointing out that it is an issue of great importance to countries of the world, especially African countries.
In the end, it should be noted that these meetings are held for the third time with Egyptian hosting, the last of which was in 1999, and Egypt is also the third largest shareholder of the bank, and the one that benefits the most from sustainable development processes among the countries of the African continent.
