Chinese Tycoon Seeks to Buy Tract of Iceland

Big land purchases attract public scrutiny, especially if the buyer is a foreign national. A Chinese real estate investor has set out to buy 300 square kilometers of Icelandic wilderness for an eco-tourism project. The tract, partly under public ownership, represents about 0.3 percent of the island and government approval is required, reports the Financial Times. Investor Huang Nubo is a former government employee with China’s Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Construction, the article notes, and Icelanders have questioned whether the purchase is linked to geopolitical purposes or natural-resources acquisition. As the polar ice recedes, China and Iceland have already held discussions on Arctic and transatlantic shipping routes. Iceland’s central bank and China also agreed to a $500 million foreign currency swap in 2010. The banking crisis in October 2008 hit the nation of 320,000 hard, but unemployment has since eased and the gross national savings rate is on the rise, so Icelanders could be less keen to sell public assets. – YaleGlobal