Strange case of the invisible workers
It's no surprise that Hutchison Whampoa Property is loath to commit to either a final cost estimate or a completion date for the mammoth Xiao Gang Wan redevelopment project it won from the Qingdao municipal government.
Not when it has taken three years following the signing of the agreement just to take occupation of the site, notes Ah Pak, who was in Qingdao last week and visited the seafront location to check up on progress. To be fair, much has happened since the contract was awarded.
The residents of the old area have been resettled in new housing nearby, and the 3.4 million square foot site has been cleared in preparation for the development of a complex of shopping and entertainment facilities as well as high-rise residential blocks with a total floor area of more than 10 million square feet.
But of cranes or new construction there was nary a sign, and just two workers were on the site, carting sand to the nearby resettlement area.
In response to Ah Pak's query, a spokeswoman at Hutchison said later there was no delay in the construction schedule: 'The government just handed over the [vacant] site to us in July. We have started construction work.'
