Chinese ‘Mega Resort’ For Yap?
Local leaders聽fear that聽residents will be “shunted from their homes” and “reduced to just doing cultural dances” for tourists.
Yap, one of four main islands that make up the Federated States of Micronesia, is the next regional island “being targeted for a big surge in Chinese tourism investment,” says .
And some聽locals are not happy.
“Plans to build a Chinese ‘mega resort’ on a remote Micronesian island have local politicians fearing residents will be shunted from their homes and ‘reduced to just doing cultural dances’ for tourists,” according to ABC Online.
The聽Chinese company Entertainment and Travel Group planned to build a 10,000-room complex until聽it was dramatically scaled back.
“But even the abridged proposal has divided the island’s chiefs and legislators,” says the report.
Yap and its atolls have聽7,000 people.
The FSM is one of three nations that are party to the Compact of Free Association treaty with the United States.
“But Yap is reliant on tourism and now there is frustration over delayed compact payments, stalled by wrangling in the U.S. Congress,”聽explains.
Read Civil Beat’s story on the聽economic struggles聽in Micronesia.
