Orange Egypt has announced it has signed a US$135-million agreement to build and operate the datacentre and cloud computing platform for Egypt's New Administrative Capital project.

The large-scale project to establish the proposed new capital of Egypt has been in operation and under construction since 2015. It was first announced by then-Egyptian housing minister Moustafa Madbouly at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015.

The project is pitched as a transformational enterprise which aims to alleviate Greater Cairo's increasing densification and to establish a new growth.

In Dec 2019, media reported that almost half of the land in the project had already been sold and the project has attracted about 300 investors.

Eng. Yasser Shaker, chief executive officer and managing director of Orange Egypt, said: "The New Administrative Capital project is one of the important milestones for the modern Egyptian state, and Orange possess the human and financial capabilities and expertise to manage this project."

Major General Ahmed Zaki Abdeen, Chairman of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development, said Orange Egypt's expertise in providing integrated telecommunications services aligns with the country's strategy to achieve a real sustainable development pathway.

Major General Mohamed Abdel Latif, Managing Director of the Administrative Capital Company for Urban Development, added that the agreement is in line with the objective to build the first AI-operated smart city in Egypt.

Latif said the administrative capital is first out of 14 new cities to be built in Egypt.