CAIRO, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Egypt plans to make its new administrative capital the first cashless city in the country as part of the country's plans to support financial inclusion, Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat said on Saturday.
The minister's comment came during his meeting with Michael Froman, vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard, during which both discussed the company's investment plans in Egypt in the field of electronic government payments and collections.
During the meeting, Talaat stressed the importance of benefiting from the company's experiences in order to meet the country's strategic plans and initiatives for turning into a cashless society, official Ahram Online news website reported.
The minister cited the projects being carried out by the ministry to build a safe and secure technological infrastructure which can support the country's financial inclusion initiative, in cooperation with Central Bank of Egypt.
The move should encourage e-commerce, as part of plans to make Egypt a regional hub for such cross-world industry and for the mounting global growth for these trade activities, Talaat added.
In 2015, Egypt started the construction of the new administrative capital, 45 km east of Cairo, as part of the government's plan to reduce pressure on the existing overpopulated capital, expand urban areas and develop the nation's infrastructure.
The new administrative capital, which is being built over an area of 714 sq km by tens of thousands of workers, will be home to a government housing district, 29 ministries and other state institutions including the cabinet and parliament buildings and 20 residential neighborhoods that can accommodate 6.5 million people.
