Zanzibar on Tuesday announced plans to build sub-Saharan Africa’s tallest skyscraper, with the US$1.3 billion bill exceeding the archipelago’s annual budget by more than 60 percent.
The 70-story Zanzibar Domino Commercial Tower is to be developed on the west coast, 15km from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Stone Town.
The development project would involve the creation of an artificial island, along with a marina for yachts and cruise ships.
At more than 3 trillion Tanzanian shillings, the total outlay would surpass the semiautonomous archipelago’s budget for fiscal year 2021-2022 by more than 60 percent.
Zanzibar Minister of Labor, Economy and Investment Mudrik Ramadhan Soraga told reporters that the project would bolster the “government’s efforts in inviting more local and foreign investors to the isles.”
ICONIC DESIGN
The finished project would offer 560 apartments, luxury hotels, resorts, a golf course and a wedding chapel, the New York and Dubai-based design firm xCassia, Tanzania’s AICL Group and Scotland’s Crowland Management said in a statement.
VISIONARY INVESTOR
“[The development was] first sketched in Paris in 2009, after my late father, my two sons and I played a round of dominos,” design firm founder Jean-Paul Cassia said in the statement. “I dreamed of building this project for more than a decade.”
“It had all of the bearings of an icon that anyone could remember, Cassia said.
“All it lacked was the right visionary investor and site to make it come true,” he added.
Once finished, the skyscraper would be Africa’s second-tallest building, after Egypt’s 80-story Iconic Tower, which is to be completed next year.
The continent’s tallest building in use is the 55-story Leonardo in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Famed for its turquoise waters and spice plantations, Zanzibar relies heavily on tourism.
The archipelago sustained a tremendous hit from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the