New capital cities as tools of development and nation-building: Review of Astana and Egypt's new administrative capital city

Abstract

Creating a new capital city is a critical decision, yet it has happened across the globe and across the years. Due to various reasons, capital cities were created and transformed their countries and affected their overall worldwide presence. This paper derives a comparison between the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana and the new Egyptian Administrative Capital that is currently under construction. This review article showed that despite the differences, similarities can be pointed out in relation to political, social, and economic aspects. The results figured out that both capitals are major initiatives for nation-building as well as regional and economic development. The authors conclude from the similarities between the two capital cities’ approaches that Egypt's new administrative capital can follow the well-off steps of Astana aside from the contextual differences and challenges that should not be underestimated. The authors also derive a set of elements that create a significant capital city.