Egypt's president announces new 'dream capital' city in desert
The idea is colossal - building an eco-friendly city the size of Singapore in the desert outside Cairo, a sleek new capital fit for the 21st century where a diverse slice of society will live in harmony.
The idea is colossal - building an eco-friendly city the size of Singapore in the desert outside Cairo, a sleek new capital fit for the 21st century where a diverse slice of society will live in harmony.
Of the projects unveiled at the corporate jamboree that was Egypt's economic conference last weekend, "The Capital Cairo" is the biggest and least transparent endeavour, the latest mega-project ordered by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to kick-start an ailing economy.
There will be leafy mixed-use neighbourhoods, housing for up to seven million people, 2,000 schools, shopping malls, solar-energy farms, efficient public transport, skyscrapers, a million new jobs and even a central park more than twice the size of New York City's. It's everything missing from Egypt today - with a price tag of up to US$80 billion.
For urban planners, the project - described as "a dream of what could become reality" - is a mystery, hastily conceived with no concrete information on funding. Questions stick out over the actual demand for so many units, who will build required infrastructure and how to attract a diverse cross-section of society.
Is a flashy Dubai-style city feasible in impoverished Egypt?
Crowds flocked to a scale model of the city during the conference in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where companies and states committed US$36 billion in investments and billions more in preliminary agreements. In his closing remarks, Sisi said he was "in a hurry" to see the new capital built and urged work done faster than the original 10-year time frame.
Populating the desert with new cities has been an obsession of successive presidents in the Arab world's most populous country, but after decades of work and billions spent, occupancy rates are a fraction of forecasts. Drawing Egyptians to new sites has been a major challenge, with high prices, lack of infrastructure, and few jobs.
All that will change with the new project, initiators say.
The new plan falls under the auspices of the Housing Ministry and will be built by an Emirati-led fund called Capital City Partners. Founding partner Mohamed Alabbar said clear profit incentives would encourage the private sector to lead the way.
Alabbar is chairman of Emaar Properties, the Emirati real-estate developer behind large-scale projects such as the record-breaking Burj Khalifa skyscraper and Downtown Dubai.
"If you really want growth, if you want a great percentage of return, then this is the place in the Middle East … For us as businessmen, the numbers make sense," he said in Sharm el-Sheikh. "In Egypt, I'll bite any risk any day," he added.
