Kuwait plans 77 billion dollar 'City of Silk'

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — The oil-rich Gulf state of Kuwait plans to build a major new city inspired by the Silk Road that it hopes will become a global trade and tourist attraction, an executive said on Tuesday.

The 77 billion dollar "City of Silk" aims to revive the ancient trade route by becoming a major free trade zone linking central Asia with Europe.

"It is the largest single real estate development in the Middle East," Eric Kuhne, managing director of Eric R. Kuhne and Associates, which provided designs for the seaside city, told a conference organised by MEED magazine.

The city, located in Subbiya on the northernmost tip of Kuwait Bay hard by the Iraqi border, will be home to 750,000 people when completed in 2030, Kuhne, a renowned international architect,...