Infrastructure works for the 1,000 factories project in New Cairo in Egypt are being completed, a top government official said, adding that obstacles facing small investors in the region have been removed.

Facilities equipment is being transferred to another area of the industrial zone after work was completed in the 1,000 factories area, in order to implement the rest of the facilities needed by the end of October; Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly was quoted as saying in a Daily News Egypt report.

Head of New Cairo City Authority Alaa Abdel Aziz said that the industrial zone is located on 1,046 acres; one-third of the area is allocated for the 1,000 factories. The rest of the region has 488 factories and its areas range between 800 to 1,000 sq m in size.

About 70 per cent of the required facilities have been implemented, said Abdel Aziz.

He explained that 339 factories were structurally complete, construction works are being done in 446 factories, and that 64 factories were wholly completed, with 50 of them working under their operating licence.

Abdel Aziz noted that there are 69 dedicated plots that do not have any factories.

“EGP14 million ($1.78 million) is the cost of completion of the main roads and the first stages of the internal roads pavement,” said Abdel Aziz. “The authority completed all electricity works for the factories and accepted investors’ requests to connect the power supply in accordance with the specifications and legal requirements, as well as establishing two commercial market services.”