Chinese investors are to plunge more than US$1 billion into developing Antigua and Barbuda’s first mega-resort, creating 1,000 jobs for the tiny cash-strapped nation.
Construction on the mammoth 647 hectare multi-hotel, residential and commercial project is to begin early next year. The Singulari scheme — 50 percent bigger than the regionally heralded Baha Mar resort under way in the Bahamas — is being lauded as a major feather in the east Caribbean country’s tourism cap.
Spanning 364 hectares of land in the north of Antigua and 283 hectares of tiny islands, it is to include several luxury hotels, hundreds of private homes, a school, hospital, marinas, golf courses, an entertainment district, a horse racing track and the Caribbean’s biggest casino.
It is being created on land previously owned by disgraced US financier Allen Stanford, once Antigua’s largest employer.
“Singulari will provide Antigua and Barbuda with an economic boost and galvanize the destination as a tourism force to be reckoned with,” said Sam Dyson, of Luxury Locations real-estate agency, which introduced Beijing-based Yida International Investment Group (一大國際投資集團) to the island in May last year and negotiated the deal with the land’s liquidators.
A Yida spokesman said job fairs would be held within weeks to ensure locals were given first priority for the 200 positions later this year, and the 800 created next year when construction starts.
“Over the next 10 years, Yida Group and its global partners will create an additional US$2 billion of GDP and economic value in Antigua,” he added.
Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne signed a memorandum of agreement with the developers on June 13, one day after taking office. Browne declared his intention to transform the country, suffering crippling national debt and unemployment, into an economic powerhouse.
With national debt at almost 90 percent of GDP, the main challenges for the government will include reviving the 280km2 country’s tourism-dependent economy.
Financial woes have been exacerbated by fallout from former Texas businessman Stanford’s US$7 billion Ponzi scheme.
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