Nicaragua promotes a rival to the Panama Canal.

 

A Nicaraguan parliament committee has authorized a plan to build a canal across the Central American country, moving the project forward despite concerns about the proposal's lack of details. apartments

The HK Nicaragua Development Investment Co., a Chinese consortium, is collaborating with the Nicaraguan government on the $40 billion project, which would rival Panama's canal.

Nicaragua has talked about creating a canal for generations, long before the Panama Canal was finished in 1914. However, this plan raises more questions than it answers. Opponents claim the concept is hasty, pointing to a number of missing parts in the plan, such as data on project funding and the real path connecting the Pacific and the Caribbean.

President Daniel Ortega has expressed enthusiasm for the project, claiming that it will capture 4.5 percent of global maritime freight flow and treble the country's per-capita GDP, according to ABC News.

The national legislature, which is controlled by the President's Sandinista Front, is slated to vote on the scheme on Thursday.

According to the proposal, the canal would take 11 years to build and would involve the excavation of 130 miles of waterway. The Panama Canal stretches over 48 kilometers.

Opponents criticize the canal's necessity and the lack of research into the environmental impact it may have on the country.

"We can't judge the severity of this idea since there is no set roadmap," opposition legislator Javier Vallejos told the Associated Press. "This is equivalent to putting the cart in front of the horse."

According to La Prensa, the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) says that the canal proposal contains anomalies in terms of payment to landowners who would be expropriated for the project. Other investment initiatives, according to the council, will be halted until the specific direction of construction is defined.

Panama's seven-year, $5.2 billion canal expansion project is expected to be completed this year, prompting some to question whether Central America requires two canals.

The Housing Market in China Is Failing.

In April, China's average house prices jumped 4.3 percent year over year, demonstrating that official efforts to temper the country's housing market are failing.

After a 3.6 percent year-over-year gain in March, average house prices rose for the fourth month in a row.

According to the Wall Street Journal, home prices grew in 68 of the 70 locations studied in April, up 0.9 percent from the previous month, compared to a 1% increase in March.

Rising property prices and economic growth are posing a problem for the Chinese government. The majority of Chinese citizens are unable to purchase homes on the open market.

As a result, the government has enacted a slew of policies aimed at reducing speculation and foreign investment in real estate.

"While there was some reduction in April, many cities still have rising prices...expectations that prices will continue to climb haven't been erased," Liu Jianwei, a Chinese National Bureau of Statistics official, told the Journal.

A surge in loans to home purchasers is fueling the rise in home values. According to the Wall Street Journal, overall lending increased 64.7 percent year over year in the first four months of 2013, with the majority of it going into the real estate sector.

Although the rise in property prices poses a challenge to government policy, analysts remain concerned about a harsh drop if the bubble breaks. For the time being, however, the property market is experiencing increased demand, as demonstrated by a rise in land sales and new home development in 2013, according to the daily.