Egypt announces project to build medical city in Cairo

Egypt has launched a project to build a “medical city” that will include 4,000 beds and accommodate over 4,000 medical students.

The government is aiming to secure funding for the “capital medical city for hospitals, educational institutes, research and training”.

The 800,000 square metre facility in the capital Cairo will comprise 18 specialised medical institutes and will be built in partnership with the private sector, prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said.

“There are instructions by the President of Egypt to launch this project, which is yet another dream we add to Egypt,” Madbouly said on the cabinet’s Facebook account.

He said services to be offered by the facility will cover intensive, intermediate and premature baby care, as well as reception and emergency services, clinics and surgeries.

The facility will also include a university with five faculties for human medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmaceutical studies, applied sciences and research.

Health and housing minister Khalid Abdul Ghaffar said the project would be built on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis to secure funding.

He did not mention project costs but noted that Egypt is looking for a foreign partner to operate the facility for a period to be specified in a contract.

“We have received a number of bids from foreign companies in this regard. We will discuss these offers with the relevant authorities,” he said.

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Egypt, the third largest Arab economy, has embarked on a drive to attract private investment for projects covering various sectors as part of reforms to stimulate its economy and tackle fiscal and trade deficits.

In October, the finance ministry reported that private investments soared by nearly 24 percent during the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

The ratio of private investment of total capital surged to its highest level of 47 percent in five years, overtaking public capital of 43 percent, the ministry said.

From around EGP474 billion ($9.6 billion) during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, private investments shot up to nearly EGP590 billion ($12 billion) during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.