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.
Now, a year and a half after the $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 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 yesterday left with more questions than answers.
China secretly bankrolling plan
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 $200 million in funding.
Such is the scepticism that even those with most to gain from the project acknowledge it looks far-fetched.
“The canal has one enemy and that’s the lack of information,” said Benjamin Lanzas, head of Nicaragua’s construction industry group, who met Wang in China. “That lack of information has created a great deal of speculation, and that speculation, those expectations, have created a lot of doubt.”
Supporters point to Monday’s start as evidence that the plan is on schedule. But key feasibility studies on the canal have been pushed back to next April, and excavation work is not due to begin until the second half of next year. At 278 km, the waterway is over three times the length of the 100-year-old Panama Canal, which was completed by the United States 34 years after French engineers began it.
The five-year timetable in Nicaragua has led many to surmise the Chinese government is secretly bankrolling the plan, which both China and Wang have repeatedly denied. Yet Wang’s reluctance to reveal his backers or much of his business background has failed to dispel suspicions.
“If the canal goes ahead ... it will be because the Chinese government wants it to, and the financing will come from China’s various state firms,” said Arturo Cruz, an ex-Nicaraguan ambassador to the US.
Ortega has sought to allay fears that China is gaining a strategic foothold in Central America.
China’s involvement would be a direct challenge to the US, which controlled the Panama Canal until 1999. The US Embassy declined to comment though Nicaragua says the US has welcomed the project.
Whether the canal will eventually be built or not, China’s presence in Central America looks likely to be strengthened.