Nicaragua Persists With Canal Plan

Nicaragua has received interest from Russian private sector companies in developing a canal, 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 $20bn. 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 $4.5bn 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 $350m 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 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.