The Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) and Orange Egypt signed a contract of $135 million on January 12. Orange Egypt will build and operate its data center and cloud computing platform. Also, the company will provide the main infrastructure to help the city provide various services in conjunction with IoT solutions, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
Smart city in the desert, New Cairo
According to Major General Mohamed Abdel Latif, managing director of the ACUD, the agreement helps the country realize its ambition to build the first out of 14 planned “smart cities” in Egypt. Egyptian housing minister Moustafa Madbouly announced New Cairo at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in 2015. The Egyptian Government planned to invest in Egypt’s smart city in the desert around $45bn.
They expect New Cairo will become the center of Egypt’s political, cultural, and economic affairs. Between 40,000 to 50,000 employees and Egyptian employers such as government offices are being transferred to this new capital city, News Cairo. The city is expected to be completed between 2020 and 2022.