Every now and then they reappear. Today its in Colombia, tomorrow in El Salvador, yesterday Honduras, and the day before yesterday in Guatemala. So far, they have only ever been dreams ...
Monday, July 4, 2011
Whether by rail and inter-oceanic road, every so often the ‘corridor projects’ between the Pacific and Atlantic reoccur, attempting to compete with the Panama Canal. Some speak of complementary services, rather than outright competition.
One of the latest projects to receive press is in Colombia: "In Central America, and now in Colombia, there are projects that seek to compete [with the Panama Canal], but via dry roads or railways. The latest arose on June 24 when the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (BID in Spanish), Luis Alberto Moreno, said that the entity was willing to finance a project in Colombia referred to by the president of that nation, Juan Manuel Santos, in February in a report in the British newspaper,The Financial Times”, reported Portfolio magazine.
In Fernando Quiñonez's article in Siglo21.com.gt, some of these projects/dreams are reviewed, one of which is a long standing one in Guatemala. The article refers to comments by the executive director of the Guatemalan Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Carolina Castellanos: "Since I've been at AmCham I have heard of many port expansion and dry canal projects, but we keep conducting the same studies and nothing concrete has been achieved yet."
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AmCham Nicaragua has announced that representatives of the company HKND, concessionaire of the project, will hold a conference on August 13.
The activity, organized by the Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), will include the participation of HKND Group spokesman Ronald MacLean-Abaroa and Alberto Vega, a representative from Environmental Resources Management (ERN), the firm responsible for the environmental impact studies.
If it is not even clear whether there is a need for another canal in Central America, then obviously some or all of the routes currently being planned are not going to work.
Andres Oppenheimer, in his article in Elnuevoherald.com, notes the incongruity of having so many projects, making so much effort and so much investment in order to transversely divide up Central America, rather than applying those resources to uniting their countries throughout the isthmus.
Does this project have real and practical bases, which means we should pay attention to it?
EDITORIAL
CentralAmericaData.COM's vision is to select and validate business news that matter to the region. The modern Central American entrepreneur simply does not have time to do so, and this is the service we provide, therefore, given the publicity the press in general has given to the intereoceanic canal project promoted by President Ortega, we have an obligation to analyze and comment from a business standpoint.
President Ortega has said studies will be started for the construction of a canal linking the Caribbean and the Pacific using the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua.
The idea of building an interoceanic canal has returned to be floated in Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega announced that he will begin studies on this huge and costly project.
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