The Eagle Hills development planned under an agreement between the Maldivian government and the UAE-based company will be an integrated city offering a range of services, Finance Minister Hassan Zareer said last night.

Minister Zareer said the 500-hectare development in Rasmale’ would include three resorts and residential areas featuring properties at different price and quality levels.

International schools and hospitals will also be built as part of the development, he said.

“There will be properties with different levels of real estate, children’s playgrounds, theme parks and so on. Within an integrated development, everything that you would find in an integrated city in a developed country will be within this development,” Minister Zareer said.

The Minister said he had visited similar developments by Eagle Hills and Emaar in Egypt as part of the government’s assessment of the project.

He said the agreement with Eagle Hills was not signed without extensive consideration of the company’s existing projects and the feasibility of the proposed development.

“I also, with my team, looked at how this project is going, what the feasibility of this project is and what other projects like this they are running,” Minister Zareer said.

Among the projects he visited was Marassi in Alexandria, Egypt, which he said has features similar to those planned for Rasmale’.

“There is a yacht marina right there. There are also three hotels of different levels, and there are three levels of three ranges of properties in three towns,” he said.

Zareer said the development provides services as a smart city and that his visit helped him visualize how the Rasmale’ project could develop.

“So we can now visualise what the development will be like in our country,” he said.

Zareer also said some services and properties at Marassi are operated by Maldivians.

“It shows that Eagle Hills trusts Maldivians,” he said.