New administrative capital will bring economic, security benefits

As we noted above, the failed suicide attack at a Coptic church in Qalyubiyah topped headlines on Egypt in the foreign press this morning.

The new administrative capital’s main benefit lies in the amount of work it creates for Egypt’s construction center, which is already booming, says NBC News' Rachel Elbaum. While Elbaum notes the obvious economic benefits and talk of the new capital becoming Egypt’s first smart city, she notes some of issues raised by detractors of the project. “Though the government has said that land sales will offset the cost of the project, analysts have questioned the wisdom of building a new city at a time when the poor and middle class have been hit by new taxes, high inflation and the elimination of government subsidies on energy,” she says.