CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a new office of the Interior Ministry at the Police Academy in New Cairo, east of the Egyptian capital. The April 27 move came as part of the ministry's relocation from the Cairo's downtown area, which has become an all but official protest center over the last several years.

The city of New Cairo, which was established by presidential decree in 2000, is comprised of a number of affluent residential complexes. It has also become the home of key state institutions that have recently been moved out of downtown Cairo, such as the prosecutor-general's office, the Police Academy, state security offices and the State Lawsuits Authority.

The transfer of many government facilities to New Cairo is part of the government's plan to relocate all remaining ministries out of the capital's downtown and into New Cairo, the new administrative capital. The government plans to complete this transfer within two years, to an area roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the heart of Cairo.

This government plan amounts to a transformation of the downtown area — a recent center of demonstrations that has long served as a ministerial zone, having housed the Ministries of the Interior, Justice, Health, Education, Military Production, Supply and Internal Trade, International Education and Scientific Research alongside the Egyptian Cabinet and the parliament — into a cultural heritage area. The transfer of these ministries to their new location will have a profound impact on the downtown area.