Las Vegas on the Caspian?

The Turkmen president says it is his country's answer to Las Vegas. Using the country's copious revenues from oil and natural gas, Awaza is Turkmenistan's multi-billion-dollar beach resort project aimed at attracting foreign tourists to the Caspian Sea coast.

But as Robin Forestier-Walker reports, the luxury fleet of hotels has not yet benefited ordinary Turkmens - a third of whom live in poverty.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Jazeera;
• Asianews;
• Turkemenistan;
• tourism;
• Robin
• Forestier-Walker

[DarkFlaze]

maybe he should put his money into improving his country, such as giving the people better education, jobs, healthcare and things that benifit the community. not spending everything on a failed idea of a resort in a country where not even the average person could afford to stay for one night.

[LuckyDukeSeven]

LMAO at "All over the world... from Kazakhstan... and... also Kazakhstan! All over the world"

[NewUser21111]

They should hire Borat. He was able to put Kazakhstan on the map.

[boomboomp0wow]

Caspian Sea is not really a sea. It is a big lake.

[Sire743]

Think China's uninhabited cities. This was not the most practical use of resources. Like someone else posted, they should have put the money into their education system and infrastructure. 60% unemployment is sad for any country. I think the vision was misdirected and unsophisticated in retrospect. Hard to un-do such and error in judgement over time. I'm sure he had good intentions but just the wrong focus, perhaps. Costly.

[Incognitoification1]

@Mjayiesm It's called a cult of personality, it's a form of propaganda, usually, used by dictators, to create a false idealised image of themselves for the masses.

[Herimia]

@DarkFlaze They dont have the money to give people better healthcare, and if they did thats not going to generate any more money.

[zambimaru]

This looks just like North Korea's failed attempt at tourism.

[SPF941194]

If you build it-they will come!

-Or not...

[yourtreat2]

@Tokopol Did it ever occur to you that simply having the 3rd largest gas reserves in the world puts them in the unique positions of using a fraction of that gas as COLLATERAL on

low interest loans from the Countries that represent the potential consumers of the gas, AND ANY OTHER Country.

They don't need money from hotels to do anything.

[yourtreat2]

@Tokopol "Turkmenistan's gas reserves aren't enough to cover everything, or else they already would be paying for everything"

Turkmenistan's gas reserves have not even been developed to the extent that they can reach any foreign markets.

Their gas reserves have the ability to make them amongst the wealthiest Counties in the world, educate EVERYONE, AND PROVIDE all of them with the wealth to support even the poorest families by eliminating poverty in their entire Country.

[Tokopol]

@Alhazem1 The beach resort is a one-off capital outlay. Social programs are ongoing drains. Understand the difference between the two. Turkmenistan's gas reserves aren't enough to cover everything, or else they already would be paying for everything. Besides, gas runs out and tourism doesn't. Spending something non-renewable on something that doesn't generate a return instead of investing it in something that can actually sustain the programs is categorically illogical.