The Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities said in a statement issued on Wednesday that the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has withdrawn from the new administrative capital project, which had been announced during the Sharm El-Sheikh conference in March 2015.
According to the statement, the company decided to withdraw over financial disputes.
The Chinese company is the second private foreign company that withdraws over financial questions from the project after an Emirati company previously decided to do so as well.
Ayman Ismail, chairperson of The New Administrative Capital Company, owned by the ministry, said that the governmental area at the new capital will be established by Egyptian construction companies.
However, Hany Tawfik, executive chairperson of Union Capital Incorporated (UC), said that such a thing must give the government the opportunity to think again about the project, adding that establishing the new capital should not be a national priority at the moment.
He noted that the government could use the money for far more important projects.
Regarding the company, he said that changing the priority from foreign investors to local ones would not change the issue, adding that the problem remains the same, which is that the money is Egyptian and could be used for any other more important matter.
“The whole project needs more transparency,” he stated.
It’s worth mentioning that the project had originally been proposed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as a solution to the country’s housing shortage due to a rapidly growing population, and also as a long-term investment that would offer good profit margins for investors.
