<Saudi Arabia's Binladin is in the running to win the Egyptian government's public-private partnership (PPP) program to build schools next month after qualifying along with five other major companies. Orascom Construction, Samcrete Egypt, Bouygues Construction and a consortium of Babcock Brown, Hassan Allam Sons and IT Venture are among the companies in the running for the first phase of a massive program that will see 2,210 new public schools built over the next five years. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) was selected as the advisor for the tender and White & Case as the legal advisor for the project, the first phase of which is scheduled to last 30 months with a 15-year operating period. The winning company will commit to partnering with the Educational Buildings Authority to design and build new public schools in 18 governorates divided into 7 geographical groups and equip, maintain and finance these schools with non-educational services such as maintenance, cleaning, epidemic control, security services, laboratories, and libraries. In addition, 11 plots of land were made available in Cairo governorate to establish these schools and about 7 other plots in Alexandria, while Sharqiya governorate has the lion's share of 26 plots of land, 23 plots in Dakahlia and Sohag, 25 plots in Minya, 22 new schools in Qena, 12 schools in Aswan, and 10 schools in Assiut. The governorates of Upper Egypt accounted for the majority of the first phase of these new schools, with 14 schools in Kafr El Sheikh, 13 in Gharbia, 9 in Menoufia, and 12 in Giza, and 450 schools will be built per year to complete the project within the five years.