Oman counts on Chinese billions to build desert boomtown

Oman counts on Chinese billions to build desert boomtown:

"In the remote desert along Oman’s southern coast, construction machines hired by a Chinese consortium are leveling an expanse of pale orange sand - a first step toward billions of dollars of investment. Over the past year the Chinese have become key to Oman’s effort to transform Duqm, a fishing village 550 km (345 miles) south of Muscat, into an industrial center that will help the country diversify its economy beyond oil and gas exports. In a pattern seen across much of the Middle East, the economic interests of the Omani and Chinese governments are coinciding in ways that promise a surge of Chinese capital into the region over the next few years."



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