G4 Cities "Sustainable, Green, Smart", Says Housing Official

Dr. Walid Abbas, Assistant Minister of Housing, and supervisor of the planning and follow-up sector at the New Urban Communities Authority confirmed that the increase in population density in the period beginning in the 1970s required the need to establish new cities.

Abbas added that the great breakthrough in the establishment of new cities started in 2014, which witnessed the launch of a new generation of cities that are characterized by sustainability, which is the fourth generation (G4) cities with a number of 39 cities, in which the state focused on paying attention to the environmental aspect in addition to improving the quality of life for citizens, in light of the impact of the changes in the world recent climate.

He added that work is underway to build these cities as smart cities that meet the standards of sustainability and flexibility and depend on increasing the green area and increasing the per capita share of green areas to 15 square meters, in addition to relying on a sustainable and environmentally friendly public transport network and relying on green buildings in social housing projects.

Abbas indicated that 25,000 housing units have been implemented using the green social housing model, in addition to the use of new and renewable energy sources, the most important of which is solar energy.

He referred to the participation of real estate developers side by side with the state in achieving these goals, as he began by highlighting partnership projects with the private sector, and explained that contracts were concluded at the beginning of 2014 and so far with (67 developers) on an area of 13 thousand acres in the fourth generation cities. With investments amounting to 1.1 trillion Egyptian pounds, the state’s share of them is 311 billion pounds, and these projects provide about 200,000 direct job opportunities.