In recent years, Egypt has keenly harnessed its capabilities to advance joint action among African countries, support their issues and resolve their crises in the road to development for the entire continent.
Egypt enjoys firm relations with all African countries, and not just with neighbours but also those associated with national security.
In light of this, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi last week visited the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for the 5th Mid-Year Co-ordination Meeting (5th MYCM) of the African Union. The first was held in Niger in 2019, when the AU was chaired by Egypt, reflecting its interest in consolidating its relations with African states, advancing integration among them, and building common awareness of the continent’s issues and challenges.
Since 2014, Egypt’s leadership has realised the necessity to change its foreign strategy, topped by Africa. In fact, Egypt’s chairmanship of the AU in 2019-2020 witnessed unprecedented successes: several initiatives relating to accomplishing sustainable economic development in Africa were launched, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement at the 2019 AU summit in Niger.
The AfCFTA forms the world’s largest free trade area by creating a single market for goods and services for 1.3 billion people across Africa and strengthening economic integration of Africa.
Egypt also assumed the leadership of the African Union Development Agency NEPAD for the following two years. Egypt could have never assumed this post without gaining the confidence of Africans. Egypt became head of NEPAD at a critical time, which required more intense efforts to overcome the grave challenges facing the African countries amid the current global economic and political changes.
As NEPAD chairman, Egypt has set goals for 2023-2025 to promote economic integration among countries of the continent, finding solutions to existing challenges, speeding up the implementation of Africa’s development blueprint, Agenda 2063, by mobilising financial resources for priority projects in infrastructure and energy in the continent.
These projects include the navigational line between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea (VICMED) and the Cairo-Cape Town Road.
Egypt will also focus on industrial transformation in Africa.
During the Nairobi meeting, President Sisi called for adopting NEPAD’s proposal to launch the African Team for Mobilising initiative to define Africa’s financing needs.
He also stressed the need for tighter co-operation and co-ordination with international partners and international financing institutions to bridge the finance gap for sustainable development projects and reduce the debt burden for the most affected countries.
President Sisi’s participation in Nairobi’ meeting emanates from his own interest to build a vision for the future of the continent and consolidate the pivotal Egyptian role in Africa with its influence, effective expertise and balanced vision.
Mohamed Fahmy is the editor-in-chief
of The Egyptian Gazette and
Egyptian Mail newspapers
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