In Pics: Sisi, Bin Zayed tour New El Alamein city

CAIRO - 28 March 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Emirati Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan toured Thursday New El Alamein city, stated Egyptian Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Radi.

President Sisi welcomed the crown prince in Alexandria’s Ras Al Tin Palace on Wednesday. Both sides tackled the bilateral relations and the regional and international issues of mutual concern.


President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Emirati Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan toured Thursday New El Alamein city- Press photo

They also announced their rejection of the intervention in the Arab states' internal affairs in preservation of their security and stability. They affirmed their eagerness to continue coordination and consultation with regard to overcoming challenges facing the Arab nation.

On March 11, 2017, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi issued a decree to form a committee headed by presidential aide for national and strategic projects Ibrahim Mahlab to study allocating thousands of feddans of state-owned land for the New Alamein City project in Marsa Matrouh governorate. The project was first announced in 2014.

The decree also allocated 7,268 feddans of coastal lands along the Alexandria – Marsa Matrouh road for the New Alamein City. The New Alamein City will include a national university that comprises a number of applied science faculties, an opera house, a library and a museum; it is designed to include 5,000 housing units to accommodate more than 400,000 inhabitants.


President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Emirati Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan toured Thursday New El Alamein city- Press photo


With the government allocating $59.6 billion from the state budget for the developmental and infrastructural needs of the project, the first phase of the project was inaugurated by President Sisi on March 1, 2018.

The first phase includes an eco-city, an international tourism center (including a museum and galleries), an international park, a university, and a service center.

Meanwhile, a ‘Latin Qarter’ is also being built by six Egyptian companies in the classical architectural style of the Greco-Roman era similar to that found in Egypt’s old capital, Alexandria. The ‘Latin Qarter’ will cover an area of 450 feddans, including 12,000 housing units, educational, health, religious and commercial facilities.

The new city will also have 16 hotels, a cinema complex, a scientific research center, a yacht marine, a business centre and sports clubs. It is designed as a whole city; a continuation of Alexandria, according to experts.

The New Alamein City has caught the eyes of the world, with many calling it the “New Riviera”, and others citing it as a must go location.

“New Alamein City will change the map of that part of the country and give a major push to the Egyptian economy,” Tarek Shoukri, chairman and CEO of Arabia Group, told Invest-Gate.

“There will be hotels, residential projects, a zone for agricultural production, and factories where these products will be manufactured to be exported to other countries,” Shoukri continued. The city, he points out, will be self-sustainable and is expected to be home to 1 million people.

“The North Coast will no longer consist of only closed resorts that merely work during the summer season. Facilities and services will keep it alive all year long,” he adds.

“The city will be a starting point for a new generation of cities as it will rely on natural resources, including water and energy. We will make use of the city’s proximity to the coast and provide drinking water through desalination using solar energy,” Mona Kamel, spokesperson of the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), pointed out.

“The New Alamein City will be very attractive to investors and real estate developers as it will encompass hotels operating for at least six or seven months a year, as well as touristic villages, a commercial zone and an an entertainment park,” Kamel told Invest-Gate..

In November 2018, Head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council Abdullah bin Mahfouz said that many businessmen are also very keen to invest in the projects of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, the New el-Alamein City, and the October Oasis project in Giza’s 6th of October City. That in addition to investing in the privatization projects announced by the Egyptian government.


Additional reporting by Amr Mohamed Kandil