UAE To Build Egypt’s New Capital City

The UAE and Egypt have signed an agreement to build a new $45 billion administrative capital in the outskirts of Cairo, state news agency WAM reported.

Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund headed by Emaar Chairman Mohammed Alabbar, will build the new Egyptian city, it was announced at an investment conference.

Egypt’s Housing Minister Mustafa Madbuli and Alabbar also signed a land deal for the new development at the conference, according to media reports.

Despite the presence of Alabbar, Emaar will not have any direct involvement in the scheme, the company clarified on a bourse statement. The company did not say whether it will be involved in the future stages of the development.

The new city will occupy 700 square kilometres of land to the east of Cairo and will accommodate seven million people when complete. The development is expected to have 2,000 schools and colleges and more than 600 healthcare facilities, officials said at the conference.

A major portion of the city is also expected to be named after one of the leaders of the UAE.

The UAE has been of the strongest supporters of Egypt as the North African economy looks to revive a lagging economy fraught with geopolitical tensions on its borders.

At the recently concluded investment conference in Sharm Al Sheikh, the Emirates pledged almost $4 billion in aid to the Arab country, out of which $2 billion will be deposited in Egypt’s Central bank.

A number of UAE firms have also flocked to Egypt as they look to increase their investments in the country.

UAE-based Dana Gas said that the company plans to invest almost $350 million in Egypt over the next 30 months.

The new investment will be in form of 40 new development wells, a similar number of workovers on existing wells, building new pipelines and debottlenecking an existing plant.

The company, which has been at odds with the Egyptian government over the last few months over outstanding payments, also said that it expected its arrears to be cleared by 2016.

Another Abu Dhabi-based firm KBBO announced that it will invest $2 billion in health, waste management, money exchange and renewable energy in Egypt.

Meanwhile, UAE-based conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim said that it will increase its investments in Egypt by 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($590 million). This is in addition to MAF’s current investment plan, which is worth 18 billion Egyptian pounds.