Egypt plans to move the headquarters of its central bank to the new administrative capital at the end of 2021, governor Tarek Amer said late on Wednesday.
Some 28 banks will move their headquarters to the new capital city in the coming period, Amer told local channel Sada El Balad in a phone interview.
Located 45km (28 miles) east of Cairo, the new capital is part of the Egyptian government’s plan to expand urban areas to deal with the state’s rapid population growth and improve the nation’s infrastructure.
The new city is slated to be larger than Singapore and will eventually be home to 6.5 million people. It will include the headquarters of 34 government ministries — including the presidential complex – a new parliament, a business district, an airport and a massive theme park, alongside with 21 residential districts.
It will also boast a huge green space bigger than New York’s Central Park, a science and tech campus, and a cultural complex complete with an opera house.