New Administrative Capital

The New Administrative Capital (Arabic العاصمة الإدارية الجديدة,) is a large-scale project of a new capital city in Egypt that has been under construction since 2015. It was announced by the then Egyptian housing minister Mostafa Madbouly at the Egypt Economic Development Conference on 13 March 2015. The capital city is considered one of the programs and projects for economic development, and is part of a larger initiative called Egypt Vision 2030.

The new capital of Egypt has yet to be given a name. A competition was launched on the new capital’s website to choose a new name and logo for the city. A jury of specialists was formed to evaluate the proposals submitted to list and determine the best among all the proposals. No official results have yet been announced by the Egyptian Government. In the early stages of planning the city’s proposed name was Wedian City. In October 2021 transportation minister Kamel al-Wazir indicated the city might be named Egypt.

The new city is to be located 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of Cairo and just outside the Second Greater Cairo Ring Road, in a largely undeveloped area halfway to the seaport city of Suez. According to the plans, the city will become the new administrative and financial capital of Egypt, housing the main government departments and ministries and foreign embassies. On 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi) total area, it would have a population of 6.5 million people, though it is estimated that the figure could rise to seven million.

Officially, a major reason for the undertaking of the project was to relieve congestion in Cairo, which is already one of the world’s most crowded cities, with the population of Greater Cairo expected to double in the next few decades.Cairo, for comparison, has a population of nearly 20 million.