Delivering her speech at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the New Development Bank’s (NDB) Board of Governors, Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al Mashat emphasized the necessity of strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors to boost investment.

She urged governments to allocate portions of their budgets to priority projects and highlighted the importance of prioritizing infrastructure projects that can attract private sector investments and foster public-private partnerships.

The meeting included opening remarks from Dilma Rousseff, NDB President; Jin Liqun, President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, President of the World Trade Organization; and the Governors from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, and the UAE.

Al-Mashat, who also leads Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, noted the issue of financing gaps in development, advocating for blended finance approaches that merge public and private investments and stressing that integrating multilateral development banks and governments is vital to advancing development goals.

She added that governments need to clearly define their priorities and the level of public investment they will provide, while maximizing country ownership principles to identify actual needs from multilateral development banks and encourage private investments.

The minister highlighted the importance of collaboration among Global South countries and the exchange of successful development practices to support developing countries in overcoming their challenges.

Al-Mashat highlighted the importance of integrating government financing with contributions from multilateral development banks or bilateral partnerships to minimize costs.

Stressing the need for a multifaceted approach to financing sustainable development, Al-Mashat emphasized the increasing costs and challenges associated with development and climate action.