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Kuwait plans $132bn dream city |
Kuwait plans $132bn dream city | 22.07.2008 | |
FUELLED by soaring oil prices, Kuwait has ambitious plans to invest $132 billion building a model city in its northern desert, complete with rail links to the rest of the Middle East, central Asia and China.
"We are not dreamers at all when we talk about investing $132 billion," said Sami Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies and an adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six mostly oil-rich Gulf states.
"We`re thinking on a different plane because we cannot afford to think like everyone else. We`re thinking about something that might seem unimaginable.
"We`re going to outmanoeuvre everybody who is going to remain in the old mode of thinking about economic prospects."
London-based architects Eric R. Kuhne & Associates have drawn up designs for the project, to be called Madinat al-Hareer or Silk City, which would include a 1000m skyscraper.
The city, set for completion in 2023, would be home to around 700,000 people and linked to the capital, Kuwait City, by a dedicated mega-causeway. But more importantly, it would also be linked to the rest of the Middle East, Europe and far-flung corners of the world by rail, principally as a trade route.
"It is the official policy of the state of Kuwait to build this city and to link it to Damascus, to Baghdad, to Iran and all the way beyond. This is where we want to put our money. We want to build railways all the way to China," said Alfaraj, who also advises the government on security issues.
"We hold the keys to a lot of things, but it`s not just money. For small states like us, the important thing is not oil, it`s not money, it`s influence. If we do not use oil or money to increase our influence in a peaceful way, we have no existence."
At a time when Kuwait, with the world`s fifth-largest proven oil reserves and among the top oil exporters, is sitting on massive petroleum profits, the funding is already in place.
But aside from that, it is the regional economic and social gains, including potentially closer, deeper ties with Israel and the Palestinians, that Alfaraj emphasises.
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09. 2008 |
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