Italians and Chinese to invest $5bn in Egypt medical cities

• Cairo and El-Alamein sites planned
• Egypt’s Inventure Group leads alliance
• Boost to plans for health tourism

A consortium of three companies plans to invest nearly $5.3 billion in Egypt to build two medical cities.

Egypt’s Inventure Group leads the group, which also includes Italy’s Impresa Pizzarotti and China’s CSCEC.

One city will cost $2.8 billion and will be built in the new administrative capital near Cairo. The other, a $2.5 billion project, will be located in El-Alamein.

Egypt prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly discussed the investment with consortium executives in Cairo on Wednesday and said procedures for launching the projects would be expedited.

The projects will include hotels and recuperation centres. The government hopes to expand health tourism and expects to attract nearly 3 million medical tourists within three years of the sites opening.

Health and population minister Khalid Abdel Ghaffar said the projects would “create an integrated model for medical cities”, which would “enhance Egypt’s position as a regional centre for medical tourism”.

Chinese companies are already major investors in Egypt, mainly in economic and industrial zones, with assets exceeding $8 billion, according to Egypt’s investment and foreign trade ministry undersecretary Abdul Aziz El-Sharif.

Egypt, the Arab world’s third-largest economy and the most populated country in the region, has been trying to attract more tourists as part of reforms intended to stimulate its economy, raise revenue and cut trade and fiscal deficits.

Madbouly reported in June that Egypt’s tourism revenue rose nearly 15 percent in the first nine months of its current fiscal year.

Egypt’s tourism income increased to nearly $14.4 billion in July-March of the current fiscal year, from about $12.5 billion in the same period of the 2024-25 fiscal year, he said.

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Over the past two years, Egypt has attracted nearly $65 billion in tourism investment from UAE and Qatari developers for mega resorts in the north. They include $35 billion from Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and $30 billion from Qatari Diar.

On Wednesday, Qatari Diar’s CEO Sheikh Hamad bin Talal Al-Thank met Madbouly in Cairo to discuss its luxury project and said the company was seeking global partners.

“The project is based on the establishment of an integrated urban city at a world-class level, operating throughout the year and not a tourist resort,” he said.