Egypt targets 39 new cities by 2050 as Madbouly defends desert expansion
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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly says Egypt plans to build 39 new cities by 2050, with work on 27 already under way or complete, arguing that expansion has curbed encroachment on farmland and the growth of informal settlements.
Egypt is planning 39 new cities by 2050, with construction already under way or completed on 27 of them, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said at the Egypt Forum 2026, as he defended the country’s push to build in the desert.
Speaking during an urban development session on the second day of the forum, Madbouly said New Cairo is now home to three million people, while 6th of October City has a population of two million. He said the expansion of new cities had helped curb the growing encroachment on agricultural land and the spread of informal settlements.
The prime minister acknowledged that some had questioned the need for more new cities when 22 existing ones remain largely unoccupied, but said the plan envisages 39 cities by 2050.
He also said New Alamein City had attracted one million tourists this year, presenting the new urban centres as more than dormitory towns for Cairo.
On upgrading existing urban areas, Madbouly said the government had redeveloped more than 350 unsafe areas that were previously home to around 350,000 Egyptian families, and highlighted efforts to develop historic and Islamic Cairo.
He described the presidential Decent Life initiative, aimed at rural areas, as one of Egypt’s major national projects. The programme has been divided into three phases, with the first completed at a cost of LE450 billion and implementation of the second already begun, he said.