Photo: Shaima Aly - One of the newly developed cities surrounding Cairo

Permalink to this discussion: http://urb.im/c1511
Permalink to this post: http://urb.im/ca1511cra

 

 
Cairo's desert cities: new economic and social horizons

Shaima Abulhajj, Cairo Community Manager

Cairo, 17 November 2015

Almost 100% of Egypt's population lives in Cairo, Alexandria or along the Nile river banks and the Suez Canal. Cairo and other major regions of the country are some of the most densely populated in the world. Cairo itself has a population density of 19,376 people per square kilometer.

Due to the rapid increase in the population, the Egyptian government established the New Urban Communities Authority. In the 80s, it began to build new cities and expand horizontally in order to take advantage of the vast desert and unpopulated areas in the country. And at the same time, it undertook a several-years birth control campaign in order to reduce the birth rate in the country. At the same time, the government had to invest significantly to develop robust infrastructure and well-operated transportation facilities.

Some cities have an important impact because they improve people's quality of life and alleviate poverty for their own inhabitants. One of those is Sadat city. Sadat city, which is located 94 kilometers north-west of Cairo, is considered one of the largest industrial communities in the country. The City Council tries to make the area a self-sufficient spot for its own population; therefore, it tries to provide all the required services for its inhabitants, including transportation, health resources, and educational facilities. Recently, the council of Sadat city discussed ways to further develop internal transportation by increasing the licenses provided to the rental cars and service vehicles. To provide the inhabitants with job opportunities, there is an integral industrial area in the city. The industrial area includes 23 million square meters with 450 factories. The city also includes spaces for small industries and workshops. The city has fully-operational roads, sewage and power networks and telecommunication infrastructure; additionally a separate industrial sewage network is developed for the factories located in the city. It also provides environmental consultations for the factories' owners and air pollution measurements. The city is also surrounded by a green stripe of 33 thousand acres, including an area for securing crops, so those crops can be used in the food industrial production. There are 120,000 inhabitants in the city, and it is planned and prepared to host a half-million inhabitants in the future. In terms of the educational facilities, the city has a public university, which includes several faculties and institutes. For the people who would like to work in trading, there are many outlets for rental at the malls located there. The government tries to encourage investment in the newly-developed city; therefore, the business owners can enjoy significant tax deductions for their projects.

Based on this achieved developments, the city has now an Investors Association, which considers providing information, updates and opportunities to the small entrepreneurs and helping them to develop their businesses as local inhabitants. The association also advocates for the interests of the investors and young entrepreneurs of Sadat city. From all these measurements, it is clear that Sadat city is one of those newly developed areas that helps their inhabitants to live a higher quality of life, and achieve the potential of the youth who have start-ups and SMEs to attain welfare and gain social stability.

Photo: Shaima Aly

Permalink to this discussion: http://urb.im/c1511
Permalink to this post: http://urb.im/ca1511cra