Her Excellency Dr. Sahar Nasr was sworn in as the Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation on February 16, 2017, following her appointment as Minister of International Cooperation on September 19, 2015. Since assuming this role, Dr. Nasr has made several strides in enhancing the business environment and the investment climate, with the ultimate objective of promoting private sector participation. She has also focused on strengthening Egypt’s ties with its existing international partners, as well as exploring new opportunities for cooperation, all through the establishment of mutually-beneficial partnerships. This has involved consolidating Egyptian-Gulf relationships, expanding and deepening ties with African states, and exploring new relationships with Asian partners. Dr. Nasr also serves as Governor of Egypt to several institutions such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Dr. Nasr is a member of the Economic Development Council of the Presidential Office through which she provides economic consultations to the President and drafts proposals for the development of Egypt’s economic policies, coordinating and streamlining development initiatives and programs across different ministries and authorities, as well as to ensure the modernization of the economic performance system. Her Excellency was granted the 2015 prize of the most influential woman in the Arab economic sector.
Dr. Nasr’s career, particularly her role as Program Leader and Lead Economist at the World Bank, involved designing and supervising numerous reform and finance programs in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. She has accomplished numerous success stories in the areas of economic and financial strategy design; monitoring progress and implementation of financial sector programs including legislative, supervisory and structural reforms; development of SMEs to promote inclusive growth and job creation, design and management of social housing finance programs, as well as constructing partnership schemes between the World Bank Group, Governments of a diverse group of developing countries and other local/international organizations. .
Dr. Nasr earned her Professorship from the Supreme Council of Universities, and is a Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo and a Lecturer at several Egyptian and foreign universities. Throughout her academic career, she published over 60 research papers, technical reports and books.
