Kuwait plans new £132bn metropolis

The proposed 'Silk City', planned for the head of the Gulf in Kuwait

Oil prices have so swollen Kuwait's national coffers that the petroleum-rich state is to invest $132bn (£66bn) on its ambitious "Silk City" at the head of the Gulf, it emerged yesterday.

The extraordinary scale of the metropolis - a 1,001-metre skyscraper, wildlife reserves, and homes for 700,000 people - is matched by a plan to also build an international rail network linking it to Damascus, Baghdad, Iran and China.

Inspired by Dubai's spectacular growth, the Madinat al-Hareer, or Silk City, is intended to create a trading future and a diversified economy in a city which would become a crossroads of the Arab world.

"We are not dreamers at all when we talk about investing $132bn," insisted Sami Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies and an adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six mostly oil-rich Gulf states.

"We're thinking on a different plane, because we cannot afford to think like everyone else. We're thinking about something that might seem unimaginable," he told Reuters in London, where he is holding meetings on the project. "We're going to outmanoeuvre everybody who is going to remain in the old mode of thinking about economic prospects." One aim of the project is to improve relations with Israel.

The London-based architects Eric R Kuhne & Associates have drawn up designs for the city, but said that they were unaware its budget had expanded so fast; earlier this year it was estimated at $86bn. The firm is awaiting Kuwaiti government approval to start construction, due to finish by 2023.

The name "City of Silk" evokes the prosperity of the medieval trade route linking Europe to China via the Middle East.

Kuwait wants to link its city by rail to Damascus, to Baghdad, to Iran and all the way beyond. "This is where we want to put our money. We want to build railways all the way to China," said Alfaraj, who also advises the government on security; he added that talks had been held with Iran since 1998, and with other countries.

"If we do not use oil or money to increase our influence in a peaceful way, we have no existence. People in the Gulf are smart enough to understand the impact of technology on their development, and they know that the technology is in Israel. If you look at the taboos of yesterday, they don't exist."

Today's best video

Today in pictures