Middle Kingdom meets Middle East

摘要

THERE IS NOT much to see for the first 500km south of Oman's capital, Muscat, as the highway slices through the Hajar mountains and down a barren coast. Then it hits Duqm, a sleepy fishing village that is being transformed into a mega-port. The government's hope is to capture a share of the shipping trade between Asia, Africa and Europe. And there, in the middle of nowhere, a consortium of Chinese firms wants to invest $10bn to build a 1,000-hect-are industrial zone. "Petrochemicals, glass, solar panels, car batteries-they want to attack all these markets," says Reggy Vermeu-len, the port's ceo.