Financing China’s mega-dam

When it comes to infrastructure projects, this is the big one - an engineering feat on a par with the Great Wall of China. But as well as flooding 600 kilometres of the Yangzi valley, the Three Gorges dam could cause a deluge of arguments among the foreign banks and contractors lining up to get involved. Jack Lowenstein reports on some early signs of trouble and picks out the project's likely backers.

A great new issuer leaps forward

Nobody knows how much it will cost China to block the Yangzi and build the world’s biggest ever dam. By even the lowest estimates, it will cost more than $30 billion to fulfil Mao Zedong’s dream of taming the force of the world’s most powerful river. Yet some believe it could cost a staggering $70 billion. By comparison, Malaysia’s recently-cancelled Bakun dam would have cost less than $6 billion.

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