The General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) approved the construction of the new Tarboul Industrial City under the investment zones system last week.

The ambitious project, which now awaits the go-ahead from Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli, will be carried out on 26,000 acres in southern Giza near the town of Atfih.

The area had originally been allocated for the construction of a residential extension to Atfih and neighbouring villages, in accordance with an executive order by the Ministry of Housing in 2015. However, as the poor economic capacity of the area would hamper the implementation of the project, the government shifted its approach to developing it into an investment zone that would benefit the area’s inhabitants.

“Atfih is a poor district and needs economic projects to develop,” said Magdi Ghazi, the executive director of the Tarboul Industrial City. “New roads, constructed by the state, will connect Tarboul to many other areas of the country, and the project is strategically located near major road networks such as the Cairo-Assiut Road, the Regional Ring Road, the Cairo-Ain Sokhna Road, the Fayoum-October Road and the Korimat-Zafarana Road,” he said.

“This connectivity will facilitate the project’s success as an integrated regional development project with a mixture of different economic activities. In addition to industrial and logistics facilities, there will be financial and business centres, commercial and administrative centres, residential neighbourhoods, and social and health centres,” he added.

Although the General Authority for Construction and Housing Cooperatives (CHC) had originally been designated to carry out the Tarboul project, once the approach changed, the GV Real Estate Development Company entered the picture to develop and carry out plans in collaboration with the CHC.

Ghazi explained that the GAFI’s approval was sought because the investment zones system is attractive to investors as it facilitates the necessary administrative procedures.

In January Hala Al-Said, minister of planning and economic development, held a meeting which included Sherif Hammouda, chairman of GV, together with Ayman Soliman, executive director of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and Ghazi.

Al-Said affirmed the state’s interest in giving the private sector suitable opportunities for growth and expansion, and this was reflected in the State Ownership Policy Document. She said that there is a target to increase private sector participation in the industrial sector and in the localisation of technology and that the city of Tarboul conforms with the state’s directions to develop and maximise the return from the real economy sectors and increase the contribution of industry to the GDP.

According to statements by CHC Chairman Hossameddin Mustafa Rizk, Tarboul will have around 3,000 factories in different industries and several service hubs, including a “food valley”, a “technology and electronics valley”, a marble building materials city, a textiles and handicrafts city, a plastics and chemicals hub, and a complex for light industries.  

It will also feature a dry port, a university area, a research and training centre, a handicrafts training centre, and a warehousing and refrigeration area. Its residential and housing complexes will offer different models, from freestanding homes to flats of different sizes and designs.

According to Rizk, Tarboul includes an area on which industrial investors can build major industrial complexes on plots varying from half a million to two million square metres or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on plots from 500 to 20,000 square metres.

Land costs up to LE700 per metre payable with a 50 per cent down payment and the rest payable over seven years. Investors who reserve plots will receive them at the end of the year and will be required to complete their projects within two years.

Permits and licences will be issued through a one-stop-shop system operated by the Tarboul Management Company in Atfih, which will be staffed by representatives of government agencies, such as the Industrial Development Authority, the Ministry of the Environment, the Giza Governorate, and the Civil Defence and the Investment Authority.

According to Rizk, LE11 billion will be invested in the infrastructure of the new city, with construction carried out in phases up until 2035. The first phase will be completed by the end of 2024.

The industrial areas have been allocated in accordance with conditions set by the Ministry of the Environment and take into account factors such as wind direction, putting non-polluting industries at the entrance to the city and others at the opposite end.

Ghazi explained that the difference between the industrial development system already implemented in several areas in Egypt and Tarboul is that the former invites investors to develop a particular industrial zone or park, whereas Tarboul is more complex as it is a fully integrated industrial city.

Its clients will include some 200 investors in many different industries and services distributed across the city. The GV Real Estate Company, which is carrying out the project, is thus acting in a way similar to the administrations of the 6 October or 10 Ramadan cities.

Ghazi said the new project will attract various developers and that work will start with the wholesale market hub, the education centre, and residential quarters. Because of the high cost of financing the project, coming to over $3 billion, the Tarboul Management Company will offer some infrastructure projects as investment opportunities.

The utility company that will supply electricity to the city will implement its construction work at its own expense and recuperate costs through sales, for example. Housing developers will also build housing units at their own expense and then recuperate their costs through sales. The role of GV Real Estate is to manage the whole process and the maintenance of the city.

Ghazi said that the company has already begun laying out the road and utility infrastructure over an area of seven million square metres. “We are about to sign contracts for the education zones and commercial areas and hope to announce them before the end of this year,” he said.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 31 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly