Nicaragua Persists With Canal Plan
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Nicaragua Persists With Canal Plan
Managua - Nicaraguan finance minister Alberto
Guevara tells LatinFinance. “We continue
with the plan of building a canal. Russia
has recently presented the possibility of
getting involved strategically,” says
Guevara. The minister adds that interest is
from private Russian companies and that the
project is estimated to cost $20 billion.
Nicaragua has been discussing the venture
for many years.
The idea is to build a canal
large enough to handle post-Panamax ships of
up to 250,000 tons. It was expected to take
12 years to build and use one of 6 possible
routes through Lake Nicaragua, aimed at
cutting transit time from New York to
California.
Guevara adds that timing remains unclear and
declines to give a possible timeframe.
Meanwhile, a $4.5 billion refinery and
petrochemicals project is underway with
Venezuelan help and is expected to take 3-4
years to come to fruition, says Guevara.
The
minister also notes interest from Brazilian
companies including Queiroz Galvao, in a
$350 million hydro project. Above all, the minister
stresses the importance of attracting
private foreign capital to exploiting
Nicaragua’s potential in power,
infrastructure and tourism.
“We don’t want
all of this development to come from the
state, we want an integrated approach,” says
Guevara.
Nicaragua is looking to secure
around $500m from multilaterals to help
exploit natural resources in the long term.
“Measures need to be taken immediately to
help the most vulnerable countries, like
Central America,” Guevara says.
“$100m million would
help us survive,” the minister adds, asked
what this year’s needs are. Nicaragua
continues to get energy resources from
Venezuela, via the Banco del ALBA, for
social projects. The minister notes highly
favorable terms on the aid, but also sees
growing problems in Venezuela.
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