China is the main financer of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital project, providing US$35 billion of the $45 billion cost, almost 77.7 percent, the US news website World Tribune reports.
China Fortune Land Development announced on September 25 that it would invest $20 billion in the project. That announcement followed the pledge of $15 billion from China’s state-owned construction company.
The first phase of the construction of the new city will cover about 10,500 acres and will include the establishment of headquarters for ministries, the Cabinet, parliament, an exhibitions ground and 15,000 housing units.
The new capital is one of a series of mega-projects announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi designed to attract foreign investment and create jobs in a country with a booming population of 90 million.
The proposed city, which Egypt plans to build within five to seven years at a cost of $45 billion, has been criticised by some Egyptians as unnecessary and ill-conceived.
The city, planned to be the size of Singapore, aims to include an airport larger than London's Heathrow, a building taller than Paris's Eiffel Tower, and more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles) of boulevards, avenues and streets.
