Without revealing how it will be financed, HKND Group has presented a draft design which as well as the canal also includes deepwater ports, a free trade zone, a resort, an airport and an artificial lake.
Amid concerns about the lack of information regarding the source of funds to finance the mega project, the government of Nicaragua and HKND reported that the project, in addition to the construction of the canal, will include the construction of two deepwater ports, a free trade zone, a resort and an airport north of Rivas.
Despite the new president having reaffirmed his government's commitment to the project at Moin to be run by the Dutch company APM Terminal, his own lawmakers are supporting the formation of a committee to re-analyze the concession contract.
While President Luis Guillermo Solis is touring the United States looking for investors and providing legal certainty to foreign companies, inside the country space is still being given to obviously bias obstructionism on the part of port official unions. Now it is the sphere of the Legislature where a petition will be filed in an attempt to halt the project.
The area near the entrance of the Canal where land was recently sold to develop a resort could also host port logistics parks.
According to analysis by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Canal Authority of Panama (ACP) the location of Punta Batele in the Pacific entrance of the canal, is ideal for port and logistics activities, taking advantage of its mixed inner city zoning generating increased revenue.
In Costa Rica extreme environmentalism and the interests of the port unions are crippling a proposed $1 billion logistics development which is vital for the country
For the second time this year an appeal has been filed to obstruct the development of the port terminal by APM Terminals. Now it is the Constitutional Court that is hosting yet another appeal against the construction of the access road to the project.
The Autonomous Executive Port Commission is urgently calling on the Treasury for a budget reinforcement of $15 million for dredging the access channel to the Port of La Union.
The term "white elephant", in Spanish (elefante blanco), English, and French (éléphant blanc), is used to describe possessions that cost more to maintain than the benefits they provide, or those that provide benefit to others, but only cause problems for the owner.
The National Port Company has announced it will invest $5 million in the modernization of the tourist port of San Jorge, on Lake Nicaragua.
From a statement issued by the National Port Authority:
The CEO of the National Port Authority said the project at the Port of San Jorge includes expanding the current breakwater, making another breakwater parallel to it measuring 350 meters long, and dredged to a depth of five meters so that there will not be any further problems with sedimentation.
The logistics union of Guatemala is demanding greater agility and improvements in customs offices in order to prevent the port terminal to continue reducing competitiveness against the Mexican port of Manzanillo.
The lack of agility in customs procedures and the absence of a law to standardize practices in ports are the reasons why Puerto Quetzal is losing competitiveness against its Mexican neighbor Manzanillo.
Exporters are complaining because customs clearance procedures at the port terminal which used to be completed in three days now take 20.
Ever since Operadora Portuaria Centroamericana assumed control of operation of the cargo terminal at Puerto Cortes, the processes for inspections and unloading have delayed goods by considerably more days than before, raising costs for exporters and importers, who have to wait up to 20 days to take their products out of the port.
The Presidential candidate Luis Guillermo Solis has promised to respect the contract with the Dutch company APM for the construction of a new container dock at Moin.
The likely winner of the presidential election has backtracked on his campaign ads which stated he would "review the ports concession contracts."
During a meeting with members of the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde), Luis Guillermo Solís, presidential candidate of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), said that a new government would respect the contract that was signed two years ago with the Dutch firm APM Terminals to build a new container dock in Moin, Limón, with an investment of $1 billion.
From 14 to 16 October participants in the port and logistics industry will gather together at the 14th edition of the event to be held in Cartagena, Colombia.
Between 14 and 16 October this year the fourteenth version of TOC Container Supply Chain (TOC CSC Americas), an international conference on the port industry and the container supply chain, will be held in Cartagena, Colombia.
The World Bank could provide $45 million required for the first phase of the project in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is looking at providing a loan of $45 million to finance the first phase of the Quetzal Container Terminal. The director of the bank could approve the loan next month.
With an investment of $35 million the plan is to build a shopping center with movie theaters, a convention center and a hotel in Puerto Salvador Allende.
According to Virgilio Silva, CEO of the National Port Enterprise (EPN) , the construction of a shopping center with cinemas in Managua Malecon is very close to completion. Documentation has been formalized with Arab investors to develop the project which also includes the construction of a convention center and a hotel.
Excessive paperwork is delaying investments in the country's ports, while authorities blame each other for the problems.
Planned investments in the ports of Limón, Puntarenas and Caldera have been slowed by excessive paperwork and the lack of accountability of the authorities, who blame each other for the delays.
2 years ago the port of Moin halted a million dollar purchase of equipment.