On 29 March 2016, State Secretary Yasmin Fahimi met with the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr Badr Abdelatty, who paid his first visit to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The discussion focussed on social security measures, strengthening youth employment and the integration of refugees.
Ambassador Abdelatty underlined the importance of fighting poverty and social exclusion in Egypt and provided information about current government programmes aimed at modernising the social insurance system. He said that another major challenge was the high youth unemployment rate that had to be tackled with suitable measures. According to the Ambassador, the German Federal Government's development policy commitment to strenghten dual training in Egypt was a very important and effective step to this end.
State Secretary Fahimi welcomed the cooperation between Germany and Egypt aimed at promoting employment and strengthening vocational training. She pointed out to two key success factors for the dual system in Germany, namely the firmly established "culture of training" and the intensive cooperation between all labour market actors. To cope with the challenges in the context of the current migration movements, both sides confirmed the need for close cooperation within the international community and emphasized the importance of implementing suitable measures to integrate refugees into society.