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The Grand Canal of Nicaragua project a bust at five years old?
December 31, 2019, NICARAGUA
Chinese businessman Wang Jing of the Nicaragua Grand Canal Company predicted that the controversial project he launched in Dec 2014 to link the Atlantic and Pacific across Nicaragua would be operational by 2020. Five years on, the status of the planned 172-mile waterway is unclear – as are the whereabouts of the tycoon – and a money-laundering investigation centres on the project.
In 2013 Nicaragua’s parliament granted Hong Kong-based company HKND a licence to build the waterway. President Daniel Ortega argued for it as a means of alleviating poverty for more than half the country’s population. Opponents foresaw the expropriation of land, environmental mayhem and a job boom that would bypass the locals. Some opponents saw the Chinese involvement as sinister, noting that Beijing would use it to establish bases in Nicaragua, initially to protect the canal. Environmentalists argued that the canal would destroy Lake Nicaragua, an important source of fresh water, and irreparably disrupt wildlife migration.
Some critics have questioned the canal’s financial soundness. The then-billionaire Wang Jing apparently lost 85 per cent of his fortune in 2015 and has had a string of financial disasters before and since the canal project. Forbes reported in Apr 2018 that Wang Jing has abandoned his office in Hong Kong island’s tallest skyscraper, with no word about plans for another location.
In Apr 2019 the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Laureano Ortega Murillo, the son of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, accusing him of using the moribund interoceanic canal scheme to launder money and acquire property.
The anniversary spotlights the unfolding stories about Wang Jing’s misfortunes, his plans and whereabouts, and the status of the canal project.
Tags: 5 Years, 5th Anniversary, Nicaragua Grand Canal Company, Wang Jing
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