Egypt Forum of Business France / Agnès SOUCAT (AFD): “France is well placed (…)

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by Alfred MIGNOT for AfricaPresse.Paris (APP)
@africa_presse

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Present in Egypt since 2005, AFD holds a portfolio valued at approximately 3 billion euros, including 30% sovereign and 30% private, with activity of its subsidiary Proparco around 450 million euros, and a also activity of Expertise France, its other subsidiary, on subjects of public policy reform and public action, in particular on health insurance and universal health coverage.

The health sector is growing in Egypt, as it is everywhere in the world. It creates growth and jobs, and Egypt is extremely well placed there; it is one of the rare countries with qualified human resources in this sector – in fact Egyptian doctors enjoy an excellent reputation.

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AFD very involved

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Today, AFD is deploying eight projects under execution in the health sector, with a commitment amount under execution of 239 million euros.

“We are therefore directly supporting the Egyptian government, both in the primary health sector, as close as possible to the populations in the governorates, with a project loan on digitalization of 25 million euros and, more importantly, it is the support that we offer to the project of developing a real social contract, the health insurance project, to therefore both increase the quality of the offer in the sector, and also develop a modern financing mechanism, with the establishment of management institutions”, specifies M^me Agnès Soucat, Director of Health and Social Protection at AFD.

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Financing and
technical support

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Two AFD public policy loans are therefore in progress, the first of 60 million euros and the second of 150 million euros. Beyond financing, the technical partnership to support institutional construction represents an essential contribution.

If Egypt has made extraordinary progress in the last six years in the field of health, the country’s ambition is now to achieve a health system close to those developed over the past 70 years in European countries.

Hence the need to strengthen institutions with mechanisms such as the regulatory agency, the purchasing agency, health insurance, financial mechanisms, etc.

This is why the strengthening of national institutions and the training of Egyptian executives, at all levels, are today the first axis on which we are working with the Egyptian government.

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Priority for low-carbon hospitals
and energy efficiency

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Agnès Soucat also noted that “one of the major priorities in our health investments is the low-carbon hospital, the climate-resilient hospital, and human resources in a trajectory where health skills will greatly transform in the next few years. Today, we already provide support for the investment of many countries, moreover in partnership with the European Commission.

Conversations are in fact already underway with Egyptian entities in the sector, in particular with Dr. Ahmed El Sobky, President of the Egypt Healthcare Authority.

“At AFD, we are developing an energy efficiency program for buildings in the Mediterranean region, and therefore we are very much in this dynamic of supporting demand – this is what we are doing today through these budget support loans – and also we work on institutional construction, information systems; on the other hand, to work on supply, therefore on infrastructure investments, and of course in human resources.

As a first step in assessing the impact of climate change, we proposed that AFD launch the preparatory work necessary to calculate the carbon footprint of the insurance system,” explains Agnès Soucat.

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Training for the jobs of tomorrow

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Today, Egypt has demonstrated its capacity to train high-level executives in the medical field. But as in France and Europe, the challenge now is to go further, to focus on developing training institutes, possibly private, for the professions of tomorrow – all technical professions, technological professions, professions of hospital management, analysis and data system management professions, but also care delivery systems, whether technical professions or even today, differentiated professions based on the skills of medical assistants, nursing, advanced practices, etc. “France is well placed to meet these needs,” underlines Agnès Soucat.

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CAAP XIV: Nine ambassadors and full house at UNESCO for the XIV^e Conference of Paris Ambassadors, dedicated to cultural diplomacy, on September 25 (reports currently being written).

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THE XV^e CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN AMBASSADORS OF PARIS will be held at the end of November, on the theme: “The bright future announced for railways in Africa”

Candidate expert panelists and corporate sponsors wishing to participate, make yourself known to: [email protected]

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