The Ministry of Culture has selected Hill International to be project manager of the Grand Egyptian Museum, reports Nevine El-Aref Last week the premises of the Ministry of Culture in Zamalek was bulging with journalists and media experts to witness the signing of a joint venture contract with Hill International and EHAF consulting engineers to provide project management services during the planning and construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). "With the selection of a project manager, we have achieved yet another milestone in the development of the GEM," Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said. "We have the expertise of a world-class project management team to ensure that this project will be completed successfully, as our expertise and efforts are not enough to supervise management work of that weight," Hosni told reporters. The minister described such a moment as one of Egypt's most momentous cultural days, as the GEM, he said, was the most important cultural project of the century. The GEM is scheduled to open 26 months from now. He also wishes that a private organisation will take the management and administration work in the GEM after the completion of its construction. The GEM will be the largest and most important museum in the world for displaying ancient Egyptian objects. It will also be the largest museum in Egypt and one of the leading centres of Scientific, historical and archaeological studies on the globe. The museum's 21st-century galleries will be located in an iconic and distinctive building located at the spot where Cairo meets the desert, abutting the Giza Plateau. Visitors to the museum are projected to be five million per year at first, and after two years numbers are expected to reach eight million. The museum, designed by architect Heneghan Peng, will be built on an area of 117 feddans and will display 100,000 artefacts from the art of ancient Egypt. The total cost is estimated at $550 million, $300 million of which is a long-term loan from Japan with the rest being provided by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The GEM is designed to use the latest technology systems, including virtual reality, in order to be in direct contact with other local and international museums. It will include a museum for children, conference rooms, training centres and a workshop similar to those found in ancient Egypt. "We are glad to participate in managing this historical project, and we shall use outstanding project management systems that are up to the level of the humanitarian value that this project presents," EHAF Vice-President Mohamed Fahmi said. Raouf Ghali, president of Hill's project management group, called the project "an iconic and once in a life-time project". "Hill and EHAF are proud to have been selected to manage the construction of this world class project," he said.
