- | 1:00 pm Egypt’s infrastructure boom is forcing a reckoning with how to protect its ancient cities As Egypt invests billions in infrastructure, Dr. Abdelhamid Salah Al-Sharief says heritage must become central to the country's development strategy. Egypt’s infrastructure sector has undergone one of the region’s most ambitious periods of expansion over the past decade, with more than $100 billion invested in megaprojects and the market projected to exceed $70 billion by 2031. Driven by major public investment, the country has launched a series of large-scale developments aimed at modernizing its economy, strengthening connectivity and supporting long-term growth. From the New Administrative Capital and 14 new smart cities to the expansion of the North Coast and New Alamein, Egypt has embarked on an unprecedented wave of megaprojects. Recent initiatives include The Spine urban development, a $560 million solar project expected to add 1GW of renewable energy capacity, and major transport investments such as the Cairo Monorail and the country’s $4.5 billion high-speed rail network. As these projects reshape Egypt’s urban and economic landscape, they also raise an important question: how can rapid modernization be balanced with the preservation of one of the world’s richest historical and cultural legacies? Egypt’s built heritage spans more than five millennia, encompassing Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic, and Islamic civilizations. At Egypt’s Big 5 Construct Exhibition, Dr. Abdelhamid Al-Sharief, Chairman of the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation, highlighted the importance of integrating heritage conservation into long-term planning to ensure that development enhances, rather than compromises, the country’s unique historical identity. “Ideally, there should be no conflict whatsoever between conservation and development,” said Al-Sharief. “When there is a comprehensive understanding of what needs to be preserved and what our heritage actually is, the development plan becomes adaptable and smart enough to actually add value to that heritage instead