China’s CFLD lining up for $20 bln flagship in Egypt new capital

Egypt is still considering China Fortune Land Development Company’s (CFLD) planned $20 billion project in the New Administrative Capital after almost two years of tough negotiations.

Earlier this month, the Beijing-based company has sent Egyptian authorities its latest offer to develop a 15,000-acre land in the administrative capital over 25 years, Bloomberg reported.

Egyptian officials are still weighing up CFLD’s proposal, which might be one of the major foreign investment in the North African nation in recent years, the news agency highlighted.

“All I can say is that we are in the last stage of negotiations and hoping that this will be settled soon,” president of CFLD Egypt Allen Ma told Bloomberg.

Both Egypt’s housing ministry and the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) confirmed they had received CFLD’s latest offer. They declined to comment on the details as negotiations were confidential.

CFLD is determined to pump $2 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) into Egypt in the first five years, Bloomberg reported, citing a copy of the proposal.

Accordingly, the Chinese firm will hand over the whole area to ACUD after 25 years, the proposal shows, pointing out that the megaproject is forecast to create 230,000 jobs over its lifetime.

“This is a huge project. We should take our time to study the project well and ensure it will benefit the country,” assistant housing minister and ACUD board member Khaled Abbas commented.

Given that, CFLD began talks with the Egyptian government in June 2016 over investing in the administrative capital.

In October 2017, the Chinese real estate developer had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian government to plan, develop, manage and market a section of the new city.

Source: Bloomberg