Bankrupt Caribbean paradise woos Chinese tourists – and their cash
Puerto Rico is trying to revive itself with a new plan: a US$200 million China-themed centre to be built by private investors on a former sugar cane field
Over the years, Puerto Rico has wooed visitors and investors with beaches, sun, tax breaks and splashy public works. Now the Caribbean island wants to add an outpost of Chinese culture, complete with graceful pavilions and regional cuisine.
The same territory that racked up more than US$70 billion of debt has a new plan for spurring its long-suffering economy: have private investors build a US$200 million China-themed centre in Arecibo, on a former sugar cane field about an hour outside San Juan.
The investors, assembled by a Chinese law and development firm, plan to break ground in May and envision 39 structures to highlight foods, music and entertainment.
The plan, which must overcome both China’s new restrictions on foreign investment and the commonwealth’s chequered history of ambitious development, is part of a wider strategy to lure foreign money to a territory that defaulted and in May tumbled into bankruptcy. A decade-long recession has left the economy and infrastructure in dire condition, but years of excessive borrowing to fill budget gaps has shut the commonwealth out of the municipal-bond market.
“Puerto Rico really cannot at this point go to the market and issue bonds and borrow money for public investment,” said Manuel Laboy, the island’s secretary of economic development and commerce. “It has to be based on private investment.”