World News
Chinese Firm Plans Panama Canal Alternative Through Nicaragua
Nicaragua has given a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build a $40 billion alternative to the Panama Canal, UK newspaper the Guardian reports.
The route, which would run through the waters of Lake Nicaragua, would allow passage for container ships of up to 250,000 dead-weight tonnes (dwt), more than double the size that will be able to move through the Panama Canal even after an expansion project there is completed, according to the Nicaraguan government.
The canal is expected to be 22 meters deep at 286 kilometers long, larger than either the Panama or Suez.
The company developing the project, HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment, is run by Wang Jing, who also heads cell phone company Xinwei, according to the Nicaragua Dispatch.
The Nicaraguan government will be a 51 percent shareholder in the company.
"After so many centuries of struggling to convert the canal into a reality, finally we are approaching the moment in history of wellbeing for the Nicaraguan people, of wellbeing for Nicaraguan families, and I am certain that Brazil will be interested in this project," said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
In addition to the canal, a proposal Ortega sent to Nicaragua's National Assembly would also include an oil pipeline, a railroad, two deepwater ports, two airports, and several free-trade zones, all built and managed by the Chinese company.
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