London: Chinese state-owned companies are not interested in getting involved in the Nicaragua Canal construction project, administrator of the Panama Canal has said.
Builders in the country say Chinese investors have no interest in financing the new canal, Jorge Luis Quijano from the Panama Canal Authority told the XII Panama Maritime Conference in Panama City, Panama.
Work began on the 278-kilometre waterway in December. It is due to commence operations by around 2020.
Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Group (HKND), an ostensibly private company headed by Chinese entrepreneur Wang Jing, won a no-bid concession in June 2013 to design, build, and operate the canal.
HKND has not yet disclosed the names of any investors who are funding the canal, but claims it is raising $50bn in investment, without specifying how. Wang has so far invested some $100m of his own cash in the project.
Neither Wang nor the Nicaraguan government have expressed any concerns that they will be able to obtain the financing necessary to complete the project.
It will be funded by the AIIB, they will have no problems.
Not to worry, what ever is claimed here is fiction. The Chinese government is funding this canal 100% through shell companies. It is called plausible deniability.