The Egypt Economic Development Conference, held in Sharm el-Sheikh in mid-March and attended by Arab and international leaders, has achieved overwhelming success and attracted initial investments estimated at $60 billion, according to the closing speech of Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb. The largest deal, estimated at $45 billion, was signed during the conference between the Egyptian government and the United Arab Emirates’ Emaar Properties and aims at creating a new administrative capital.

The General Authority for Investment and Free Zones has set up an investment map for projects to be implemented across Egyptian provinces. The map presented at the conference shows the most potential opportunities expected to be implemented over the next 30 years. While the opportunities include 336 projects in the fields of tourism and entertainment, these projects — and especially the new administrative capital — raise several questions about their economic viability. The time frame for the completion of the new economic capital is five to seven years. As for the other projects, details have not been announced yet.

Former Minister of Economy Sultan Abu Ali told Al-Monitor that the main motive behind the creation of the new administrative capital is the rapid expansion of Cairo and its major problems, which include traffic issues as well as social problems that result from 16 million people, or one-sixth of the population of Egypt, living in the capital. This overcrowding has also led to the emergence of slums in Greater Cairo along with an increased crime rate and more homeless children.

Abu Ali said the establishment of the new administrative capital would neither solve the problems of Greater Cairo nor be of any benefit to Egypt, and would lead to more complicated problems such as increased traffic and would largely waste Egypt's resources without being much of a sustainable and successful solution to the growing population in Cairo, the inadequate investment in infrastructure and the lack of horizontal expansion (the uncontrolled and disproportionate growth of an urban area into the surrounding countryside). The Egyptian population is slowly moving from the Nile Valley, which makes up 3.5% of the country’s total surface area, to the desert, which covers Egypt’s remaining surface area.