French telecom company Orange Business Services is gearing up to set up a new data centre in Egypt’s new administrative city as part of the project floated by Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD).
The new centre will provide cloud-based services in the new administrative capital and Orange Egypt will supply the required services and infrastructure for the development. The data centre is expected to be operational by the first half of this year amid the headwinds faced by the pandemic.
The project, which aims to establish a smart and sustainable city, is situated 45 km east of Cairo on a greenfield site. The project will cover a total area of 700 sq km mid-way to the seaport city of Suez.
Once the project is completed, the region will become Egypt’s new administrative and financial capital. The county’s primary government departments and ministries will be located in the region including foreign ambassies.
ACUD is the owner and the developer of the new administrative capital. These are the five key areas that will be focused on to establish the smart city: replicability, digitalisation, connectivity, integration and safety.
Sahem Azzam, VP (Middle East, Africa) and Turkey, told the media, “Orange Business Services is especially pleased to be selected as the trusted digital partner to this visionary and transformational project. Cairo is not only one of the oldest and greatest cities of antiquity, but also the largest city in North Africa. We have built extensive experience in the development of major smart city projects across the Middle East and especially in the GCC, through our smart city centre of excellence at our regional headquarters in Dubai.”