Smart Village () is a high-technology business district in the city of
6th of October in
Giza Governorate
Giza ( ') is one of the Subdivisions of Egypt#Governorates, governorates of Egypt. It is in the center of the country, situated mostly on the west bank of the Nile River opposite Cairo. Its capital is the city of Giza. It includes a stretch of ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, established by Presidential Decree no.355 in 2000, with activities starting in 2001. It is a business district with office buildings, retail shops, entertainment, factories and green spaces.
It is located on the
Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, slightly west of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
,
and occupies an area of 450
feddan
A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...
s. Its owned by
Smart Villages Development and Management Company.
Background
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...
signed the decree and provided the land for the building of Smart Village, in order for Egypt to build its IT economy and IT industry. Mubarak worked to get Microsoft, IBM and Cisco on-board. The 2001 decree gave companies in the Smart Village a ten-year tax break. The plan was to create several ''smart villages'' in Egypt.
Tenants
The Smart Village contains government and ministry buildings, as well as private companies. The
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities include regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. The ...
is located here.
In 2012, the
Egyptian Stock Exchange moved its administrative functions to Smart Village and has one of the largest buildings in the district, with a
skyway
A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of Cover ...
connecting the two.
In 2012,
Research In Motion
BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...
, makers of Blackberry moved their offices here and looked to hire Egyptian engineers.
The
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin, 'Library of Alexandria'; , ) (BA) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the larg ...
opened an Egyptology research centre in Smart Villages, in May 2018 and named it the Hawass Saqqara Training Centre.
In September 2018, Raya announced it would lease a large space in Smart Villages. Raya specializes in business process outsourcing.
Xceed, a subsidiary of
Telecom Egypt
Telecom Egypt (), is Egypt's primary telephone company. It started in 1854 with the first telegraph line in Egypt. In 1998, it replaced the former Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunication Organization (ARENTO).
The company has a fixed- ...
has operations in the 6th of October Smart Village.
Gallery
Telecom Egypt - Smart Village.jpg, Telecom Egypt
Telecom Egypt (), is Egypt's primary telephone company. It started in 1854 with the first telegraph line in Egypt. In 1998, it replaced the former Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunication Organization (ARENTO).
The company has a fixed- ...
headquarters
CULTNAT.jpg, Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage
Smart Village building 00 (1).JPG, Egypt Post
Egypt Post ( ') is the governmental agency responsible for postal service in Egypt. Established 29 October 1865, it is one of the oldest governmental institutions in the country.
History
Modern Egyptian postal service began when Carlo Meratti, ...
headquarters
Think Tank.JPG, The Think Tank
See also
*
6th of October
*
Sheikh Zayed City
Sheikh Zayed City () is a city in Giza Governorate in Egypt and part of the Greater Cairo urban area. It was established in 1995 and is named after Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Geography
Sheikh Zayed City is situated about from Lebanon Square in ...
*
Greater Cairo
The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...
*
Downtown Cairo
Downtown Cairo ( "middle of town") is the colloquial name given to the 19th-century western expansion of Egypt's capital Cairo, between the historic medieval Cairo, and the Nile, which became the commercial center of the city during the 20th c ...
References
External links
*
Smart Village on FacebookSmart Village on Twitter{{Commons category, Smart Village Egypt
2001 establishments in Egypt
6th of October (city)
Business parks
Companies established in 2001
Science parks in Egypt
High-technology business districts