China would build a canal between the Pacific and the Atlantic in Nicaragua

In order to double its economic growth and generate more jobs, Nicaragua opted to build an inter-oceanic canal to allow the passage of large ships between the Caribbean and the Pacific, however, this plan was questioned by opponents and environmentalists.

The project would include a wider waterway than the Panama Canal and one dry rail, pipelines, ports and air tracks, both in the Caribbean and the Pacific. According to Ecuadorian entrepreneurs, the new channel will generate competition with Panama and that could benefit national and regional freight shipping.

The Executive estimated that with the construction of this canal, will increase the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Nicaragua from 4-5% to a 10.8 in 2014; a 15% in 2015 and even “double” its economy in 2018, according to the statements given to official media by Paul Oquist, Secretary of the Government’s public policies.

This plan would be handed over to the Chinese company HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Limited, based in Hong Kong, which will strengthen the influence of Beijing in trade between the Pacific and the Atlantic, a naval route which today is managed by the United States.

The proposal of President Daniel Ortega is to deliver for fifty years, which probably become fifty more, the concession of the channel to that Chinese company, whose director Wang Jing, according to opponents, “it is not an investor, but a lawyer” a “paper company” inexperienced in affairs of this nature.