Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week, during his visit to China, signed a $3bn loan deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to help fund the construction of a business zone in the country’s New Administrative Capital.

Plans to build a new capital 40km to the east of Cairo were initially announced at a donor’s conference in March 2015, shortly after Mr Sisi became president, with the initial cost of building a new capital estimated at $45bn (MEES, 20 March 2015). (CONTINUED - 198 WORDS)