Egypt Highlighted the Most Important Keys to Achieve Development and Prosperity through its Presidency of COP27
Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that sustainable prosperity will only be achieved through peace, fruitful cooperation and constructive regional action.
This came during moderating a session entitled “A Panoramic perspective of Risks and Opportunities” within the events of the Economic Research Forum 29th Annual Conference, hosted by Nile University under the title of “The Future of MENA Development Path: Risks and Opportunities in an Emerging World Order”, with the participation of Dr. Rania Almashat, Minister of International Cooperation, Jeffrey Sachs,
Distinguished American Economist, Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, Professor at Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile, Saba Almubaslat MENA Regional Director of Ford Foundation, Hassan Hakimian, Professor of Economics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
Mohieldin added that Egypt highlighted through its presidency of COP27 the most important keys to achieve development and prosperity, which are the need to implement all sustainable development goals through a holistic approach without sacrificing one goal to achieve the other, in addition to the importance of surpassing the stage of promises and pledges and immediately starting the actual implementation of the comprehensive development action.
During the session, the speakers stressed that the whole world, not only MENA, suffers from major and successive crises, the most important of which are geopolitical, economic crises and military conflicts, as well as environmental and climate disasters that threaten the world.
The speakers agreed that no country in MENA can successfully overcome the consequences of these crises and achieve development goals on its own, stressing the importance of regional cooperation at all levels, consolidating peace with neighboring regional powers, achieving diplomatic balance by maintaining the same distances with all powers such as Russia, China, the United States and Europe, and maximizing the benefit of relations with all, as well as benefiting from the successful experiences of different countries.
Speakers agreed on the importance of the countries of the region developing long-term investment strategies, good planning in various fields to overcome economic crises and obstacles that face sustainable development, linking together all SDGs, beside enhancing investment in scientific research and applying technological solutions in different fields.
Speakers pointed to the urgent need to restructure the global finance system, to ensure having a fair financing system that enables the countries of the region to mobilize the necessary funding to implement their development plans and relieve their debt burdens at the same time. They also confirmed the need for international development finance banks to adopt policies for concessional financing.
Speakers stressed also the importance of the involvement of the private sector in financing and implementing development and climate action, and the participation of all actors in the transition towards green, inclusive and digital economies.
