MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wang Jing, the Chinese billionaire behind a USD40 billion plan to cut a canal through Nicaragua, wants to invest USD10 billion in a deepwater port in Ukraine, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Wang will team up with Ukrainian partner Kievgidroinvest to work on a port and economic development zone on the Crimean peninsula, Wang’s Beijing Interoceanic Canal Investment Management Co. said.
The project’s first phase, estimated at USD3 billion, includes building a new deepwater port, reconstructing Sevastopol port and developing an economic zone that will house technology-focused companies, the company said in a statement.
The second phase will include an airport, a liquefied natural gas terminal and a shipyard, and will cost about USD7 billion, according to the statement.
Funding for phase one has been secured and includes Wang’s own money, bank loans and investments from partners, the company said. Construction will start at the end of 2014.
Wang is the chairman of closely held mobile phone technology provider Beijing Xinwei Telecom Technology and owns HKND Group, an infrastructure developer. He has a net worth of about USD1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He unveiled the investment plan as Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was visiting China’s capital.
Wang, said in June he will spend USD40 billion to build 286 km canal in Nicaragua. Work on the waterway should start by the end of 2014 and be completed within six years, he said.
The Central American country has attempted to construct an inter-oceanic channel on several occasions since the mid-1800s without success. Wang said in June he’d successfully attracted global investors, without identifying any of them.
As MRC informed previously, Ukraine took its first major step away from dependency on Russian gas imports when it signed a USD10 billion shale gas deal with Shell in early 2013.