Even while India decided to boycott China’s first Belt and Road Forum (BRF), China’s richest man, the billionaire head of the Wanda Group, Wang Jianlin, praised India’s economic potential at the summit and highlighted his group’s ambitious plans for India.
Wang, head of China’s powerful conglomerate which has vast investments in real estate, development projects and in the film industry, was the most prominent Chinese businessman at the BRF, which was opened by President Xi Jinping on May 14 among 29 foreign leaders. India was the only major country absent at the summit, with the U.S., Japan and South Korea among those sending delegations.
While some Chinese officials and scholars have suggested India’s absence could lead to India’s “isolation” and its missing out on the One Belt, One Road (OBOR)’s benefits – Xi announced more than a hundred billion dollar boost in new loans and infrastructure investments – Delhi’s view is that India doesn’t need to endorse a domestic Chinese initiative and that Chinese companies will invest in India regardless, for economic reasons.
That argument was buttressed from an unlikely source, as in his keynote speech on tourism projects under OBOR, Wang chose to highlight the group’s ambitious new projects in India – despite Delhi not being present.
For example, India is the world’s second most populous country with a population of over 1.3 billion and a median age of 26 years, and Indonesia with a population of approximately 260 million, ranking 4th in the world, and a median age of less than 26 years. These countries are relatively lagging behind in tourism infrastructures and offer huge opportunities for tourism investments,” Wang said.
As examples, the billionaire interestingly chose to highlight Wanda’s projects in Paris and in India. The former is Europe’s biggest tourism investment, involving a 800,000 square metre project 10 km from downtown and a theme park, hotels and shops.
Wang also mentioned the upcoming Wanda Industrial New City in Haryana. “The project is located in Haryana state within the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and India’s National Capital Region, in close proximity to urban Delhi,” he said. “Covering 11 sq. km. of land, the project will have a manufacturing park, cultural tourism park and residential zone, with manufacturing and cultural tourism taking up more than 70 per cent of its total land area. After completion, the project will create more than 100,000 jobs. It is currently the largest investment project in India. The Wanda New Industrial City in India will attract manufacturers from around the world, especially Chinese manufacturers to take Chinese manufacturing to the world, while also in furtherance of India’s own [Make in India] Indian manufacturing strategy.”
The project has reportedly faced teething troubles in land acquisition, but the Wanda chairman was bullish about its prospects. Wang suggested the tourism projects offered a different model from the vast infrastructure projects China is planning under OBOR. Some of those, such as port projects in Sri Lanka and projects in Myanmar, have triggered local protests amid perceptions that Chinese companies largely benefit.
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