CAIRO — Chairman of Badr City Development Authority Ammar Mandour said in a press conference June 7 that the largest medical city in the Middle East and Africa is being built in Badr City, located 47 kilometers (29 miles) from Cairo on the Cairo-Suez road, with investments worth 20 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.2 billion).

Mandour explained that 90% of investments were made by Egyptian companies, in addition to some foreign ones, and that the medical city is expected to include 13 medical institutes with a capacity of 2,000 beds, air medical services, a university hospital, natural healing gardens and a medicinal plant nursery.

Speaking at the same press conference, Mohammed Suleiman, secretary-general of Badr University and the medical city, noted that the most modern management systems in the world would run the city in order to provide the best services to Egyptian and foreign patients; 10% of beds would be allocated for free to Egyptian citizens who cannot afford treatment elsewhere.

Suleiman noted that the project area is 109 acres, approximately 500,000 square meters, and the city will start providing medical services 30 months after construction begins. The entire project is expected to take up to five years to be completed.