Egyptian plans to build a new capital city east of Cairo were hit by the withdrawal last week of the Chinese construction firm that held the contract to build new government buildings. The contract would have been the centrepiece of the ambitious scheme to relocate the nation’s capital city to a new location between Cairo and the Suez Canal. The entire project is being developed by the New Administrative Capital Company, which is jointly owned by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities and the military. The Chinese company wanted to depend on local Egyptian construction companies, which would have been more costly for us. The chairperson of the parliamentary housing committee, Alaa Waly, said that such projects were “not new to Egyptian construction companies.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 23, 2017 09:39 UTC