On 9 March, while attending a cultural symposium organised by the Armed Forces to mark Martyrs Day, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said that “the inauguration of the New Administrative Capital will herald the birth of a new republic in Egypt.”
President Al-Sisi elaborated, saying the term new republic also encompassed a series of so-called fourth generation cities that are being built across Egypt and which should be complete by 2022. “We will open new smart cities, not just the New Administrative Capital, but in Aswan, Alamain, Mansoura, Rosetta, and so on. This is a dramatic development in Egypt. It is not just a question of new buildings, but marks a new form of sustainable development that will be the hallmark of the new republic.”
In a speech on 15 July, celebrating the first stage of the National Project for the Development of the Egyptian Countryside’s Villages (the Decent Life Initiative), Al-Sisi said the inauguration of the mega development project was a prerequisite of “the birth of the new republic”.
During a press conference with Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban in Budapest in October, President Al-Sisi said: “Egypt intends to open a new administrative capital next year, on which occasion I will declare a new republic.”
In the first week of November, Al-Sisi instructed government offices to begin a gradual move to the New Administrative Capital.
The relocation, said Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli, had been delayed by almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Madbouli indicated that the cabinet would begin meeting in the Government District in the new city in December, beginning a six-month phase during which government employees begin working in the new capital, and new electronic systems are tested.
A 2021 cabinet report said the term “new republic” referred to the “fourth generation cities which Egypt will inaugurate in 2022”. The report identified a two-pronged strategy — to develop new urban centres to accommodate Egypt’s rapid population growth, and to improve the quality of life available in older towns and cities. Together, said the report, “these projects have cost LE5.8 trillion since 2014.”
Services in smart cities, all of which have been designed to be replete with cultural centres and green spaces, will be operated by automated and fully integrated administrative systems. The 30 new cities under construction occupy 580,000 feddans, which will eventually house 30 million people.
“The new capital, which has been under construction since 2015, is the most important of these cities,” said the cabinet report. “It is the symbol of the new republic.”
According to Khaled Al-Husseini, public relations manager for the New Administrative Capital Urban Development Company, “when we say the new capital will be a smart city, we mean that technology will be used everywhere to make life easier, ease bureaucratic procedures, and facilitate access to the whole range of services.”
The first phase of the New Administrative Capital covers 250 km2 and will house two million citizens alongside ministries, the cabinet headquarters and the House of Representatives. “President Al-Sisi will inaugurate the phase next year, and use it as a vehicle to launch the new republic,” said Al-Husseini.
In a 5 December article in Al-Ahram, President of Cairo University Mohamed Othman Al-Khisht said the new republic should comprise not only smart buildings and digital technology, but must “reflect the values of the 30 July Revolution which protected Egypt from becoming an Islamist state”.
“The new republic was born of the 30 June Revolution, and should reflect the values of citizenship, democracy, respect of human rights, and religious tolerance,” said Al-Khisht.
“The lifting of the state of emergency in October and the declaration of a new strategy for human rights were significant steps towards the new republic. Citizenship means all citizens are equal, and there is no discrimination on the grounds of colour, sex, religion, or political attitudes.”
Mustafa Kamel Al-Sayed, a professor of political science at Cairo University, hopes that “when President Al-Sisi declares a second republic in 2022, it will differ from Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s and the Free Officers’ first republic.
“The first republic was basically an exercise in military rule. The second republic must be based on civilian rule, the rotation of power, and respect for human rights and freedom of speech.
“The new republic should also spend far more on upgrading education for all citizens, and not be confined to building expensive cities for the rich.”
In an article in Al-Shorouk newspaper, Al-Sayed noted that when Al-Sisi became president in 2014 he said that Egypt needed a transitional period to recover stability and improve the economy.
“He was correct. Egypt had passed through very hard times following the overthrow of the one-year Muslim Brotherhood regime. Now, though, it is time for the transitional period to end. Egypt has regained stability and the time is right to switch to a fully democratic system, with a government held responsible by a strong parliament.”
*A version of this article appears in print in the 23 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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