Has Beijing backed a US$50bn canal project in Nicaragua? Funding mystery continues
A year and a half after the US$50 billion project was launched by President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, the doubts have only grown.
When one of the poorest countries in the Americas and a little-known Chinese businessman said they planned to undertake one of the biggest engineering projects in history, few people took them seriously.
A year and a half after the US$50 billion project to build a canal across Nicaragua was launched by President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, the doubts have only grown.
Work officially began this last week. But reporters hoping to see any evidence of how it would be done in a fraction of the time it took to build the much shorter Panama Canal, or discover who would pay for it, were left with more questions than answers.
At events marking the start of what is meant to be a five-year job, Nicaraguan officials and the Hong Kong-based company behind the canal dodged questions about its financial backers, mounting delays and whether Washington had been consulted.
So far the company, the HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co Ltd, or HKND Group, of telecoms entrepreneur Wang Jing, has identified only US$200 million in funding.