Egypt Creates Investment Zone for Qatari Diar's $29.7B Alam Al Roum
Housing Minister Randa El-Menshawy said the roughly 4,900-feddan zone on the Matrouh coast will draw private capital and support hiring at the $29.7 billion development.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
Egypt has designated an investment zone for Qatari Diar's Alam Al Roum development on its northwestern coast, fixing the land-use terms for a project the government values at $29.7 billion in investment.
Housing Minister Randa El-Menshawy announced the zone on Sunday at an event organized by Qatari Diar. It covers about 4,900 feddans along the Alexandria–Matrouh coastal road in Matrouh Governorate and is allocated for residential, tourism, commercial, administrative and service activities.
The Cabinet approved a draft decree creating the zone on September 16, 2026, clearing the way for the announcement. Qatari Diar is developing the site in partnership with the Egyptian government, and the financing includes $3.5 billion in direct cash investment.
The State Information Service expects the completed project to generate more than 250,000 jobs.
El-Menshawy said the zone is intended to draw private investment and widen economic activity in the governorate, and that it would support job creation. She also stressed that the area's environmental assets have to be preserved as work moves ahead.
Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Mohamed Farid Saleh attended the announcement, along with other senior government officials and representatives of the company.
Qatari Diar is chaired by Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiya, who ranks seventh on a 2026 Middle East list of the most impactful real estate leaders.
What preceded the zone
The designation follows a November 2025 agreement between Egypt's New Urban Communities Authority and Qatari Diar covering development of the Samla and Alam Al Roum area on the Mediterranean coast. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended the construction launch on August 9, 2026. Delivery of the first phase is scheduled to begin in 2030.
Plans for the wider development include residential properties, hotels and commercial facilities, alongside cultural, educational, healthcare and recreational infrastructure.
A coastal bet beyond the Delta
The project sits inside a broader effort to pull foreign capital into large coastal developments and to spread economic activity away from the Nile Valley and Delta, where most of the country's population and industry are concentrated. Granting the site its own investment zone, with administrative and service uses written into the allowable mix, points to something closer to a year-round urban district than a seasonal resort strip. That distinction matters for how the jobs materialize: hotels concentrate hiring in peak months, while offices, schools and clinics keep people on site through the year.
Whether private investors take up the offer is a separate question from the decree itself. The zone gives them a defined set of permitted activities and a partner in the state, but the $29.7 billion headline figure depends on commitments that have yet to be signed.
The first phase is due to start handing over units in 2030.
