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January 14, 2008
Dubai to Build $600M Hub at S. Carolina’s Orangeburg County
Dubai to Build $600M Hub in US "Corridor of Shame"
Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America.
The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US.
The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought land in South Carolina’s Orangeburg County.
Parts of South Carolina, which on January 26 holds one of the country’s key presidential primaries, are so underdeveloped that the area has been dubbed the US’s “corridor of shame”.
Jafza, which operates Dubai’s Jebel Ali free zone, is a sister company of DP World, which sparked a political furore last year when it acquired the management of six major US ports through its purchase of P&O.
Although that deal was backed by the Bush administration, political opposition in Congress to handing over such strategic facilities to a Middle Eastern company persuaded Dubai to sell off the US interests.
So far the Orangeburg project, little reported outside the region, has not provoked significant opposition. Jim Clyburn, Democratic congressman for the district, told The State newspaper in South Carolina that support for the plan was “overwhelming”.
When Jafza bought 1,300 acres of land in the area in October, its first acquisition in the US, the company said it planned to invest about $600m (£306m, €406m) to create a world-class logistics and business park that would include light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facilities.
“Jafza’s long-term strategy is to develop a global logistics platform, and Orangeburg is one more major step in that direction,” said Salma Hareb, Jafza’s chief executive officer.
The project aims to create 8,000 to 10,000 jobs in an area of high unemployment, predominantly among African-Americans, and to attract further private investment of $1.2bn. It trumped a plan by the Catawba Indian tribe to set up a high-stakes casino on the land.
Jim Hodges, a former South Carolina governor who advises the Dubai company, told the FT:
“Jafza looked at changing shipping patterns, particularly on the west coast, and saw that, with the expansion of the Panama Canal, it would be easier for Asian companies to ship through the canal to the south east.” Panama is spending $5bn to double the capacity of the waterway over the next decade.
Mr Hodges said the Orangeburg project should not be compared to the controversial DP World deal. “Congress overreacted to a company and a country with which the US has good relations. This, however, is not ports but a business park.”
He said the hundreds of companies that might be encouraged to relocate there could use the hub to repackage imported goods or add content to imported components for re-export.
Orangeburg County straddles Interstate 95, the US’s main Atlantic coast highway from Maine to Florida, where it crosses I-26, a main south-east highway.
“It’s a great North American entry point,” said Gregg Robinson, head of the Orangeburg County Development Commission.
“Seventy-five per cent of the US market place is east of the Mississippi,” Mr Robinson told the FT. “What we envision is the arrival of a significant number of companies that have an international presence.”
Wild Thing's comment........
I have never heard of this place before so I looked it up.This is what I found......
........
the "corridor of shame" tag does not refer to how developed the counties are nor does it refer to their low income levels. It refers to the badly neglected rural schools in South Carolina. It comes from a documentary by the same name and was put out by their own South Carolina Public Broadcasting.
hmmmmm well let's see, since foreigners will have ownership they will be able to make management decisions some of which may not always be in the best interest of the U.S.
We would be better off if we invested in this ourselves.
I find it amazing that American companies (Google, IBM, GM, etc) are content investing in foreign countries while foreign companies (this company, Toyota, Nissan, etc) are content investing in the US.
Why couldn’t a smart American company or entreprenuer think of an idea like this? Because it wouldn’t make a quick buck like investing in China would. It’s only good for long-term gain and that idea is no longer appealing to the majority of people who run or live this country.
Seeing the sovereign nation of the United States turn into an international shipping hub. We don’t need to manufacture! No wonder the Rino’s don’t want to control our borders, their UAE friends will need that cheap labor at their new ‘business park’.
And no wonder the Globalists don’t want Duncan Hunter heard. The UAE is against our WOT. They are not our friends.
Links of interest:
War On Terrorism: Funding - Dubai identified as `hub’ for hijackers’Independent, The (London), Sep 29, 2001 by Anne Penketh
US Coast Guard Had Concerns About UAE Ports Deal
By Deborah Tate
Capitol Hill
28 February 2006
The U.S. Coast Guard had expressed concerns about the planned takeover of key operations at leading U.S. ports by a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Those concerns were expressed in a document released at congressional hearing Monday.
From this site: ...there are other candidates listed as well, but these two are the only ones against it or at least with extreme caution.
Congressman Duncan Hunter: “No, because I don’t trust them. And I don’t trust them because a few years ago Dubai, while an American Customs agent was trying to stop them, set for delivery a set of nuclear triggers to an anonymous recipient in Islamabad, probably for the A.Q. Khan network. That went directly against American interests. So I would not do that.”
Senator Fred Thompson: "The answer is yes. Dubai would own 20 percent of NASDAQ, but NASDAQ, under this deal, as I understand it, would gain more than 30 percent of the Dubai company. It all depends on national security issues. Doesn’t seem to be one there. But we should look at all these deals carefully because we have a vast infrastructure. The great portion of it is in private hands. There’s no way, frankly, we can protect it all. So we need to do everything that we can to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to protect the infrastructure we’ve got and scrutinize these deals, number one, first and foremost, from a national security standpoint."
Posted by Wild Thing at January 14, 2008 12:47 AM
Comments
Oh the campus of the SC State Bulldogs will never be the same! "The arabs are coming... the arabs are coming!" And no more pork to be bar-b-qued, eh? Southern fried chicken is optional... with grits! GA$ prices in SC may be cheaper?
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at January 14, 2008 04:38 AM
Great--another foreign entity who could claim they "own" the United States.
And they tell us we're "empire building?"
Excuse me, they have it backwards.
Yes, I'm sorry some counties in America are poor, but it's because their jobs were sold out to overseas interest and are NO longer in American hands.
This really infuriates me.
Instead of bringing back companies who sold out to the Chinese, etc., they let another country bring in their jobs?
Posted by: Lynn at January 14, 2008 04:59 AM
As I was reading this, I was thinking "New World Order". I am more and more realizing what this means. It is elitist globalists running the World for extreme profits by turning the World into one big socialist entity.
These globalists buy politicians and their infuence and contacts cheap, like former S Carolina governor Jim Hodges. A lot of the cash used is our own energy expenditures, oil money. A lot of unanswered questions from decades ago start to get answered. Like, why did Carter want so badly to give away the Panama Canal. So the globalists could control it and widen it for ther own use. Do you think Panama has the money for a project like that?
Here comes Dubai again, on George Bush's watch, getting involved in control of shipping on America's coast again. Dubai is rolling in oil money. I think now that we have less worry about terrorism from Dubai and more worry about the partnership between Dubai sheiks and globalists to socialize and control Americans.
I bet these same business interests have made contributions to all the front runners in the presidential elections. Fred Thompson has been a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and that is something that bothers me. I am not a conspiracy groupie, but by golly I see America's sovereignty flying out the window now with outsourcing, sea treaties, illegal immigration, selling of American property and other insanities. Where do you think George Bush's $220M in one week came from when he announced he would run for the Presidency. "New World Order, Compassionate Conservative" have turned out to mean globalist socialism. Clinton had no slogan, but he and his business buddies selling American technology to China and his State Department appointees and policies sure fit the pattern.
In the meantime, Americans attention is diverted as we battle each other as Liberals and Conservatives. The only real difference between most of the politicians we vote for are a few social issues and the extremism of their socialism.
Please, someone prove me wrong and give me some optimism.
Posted by: TomR at January 14, 2008 09:23 AM
Will somebody please tell me who is running this country?? I can't believe that we are so naive in thinking that everything will be ok. We are talking about a Arab country and major ports.
Do we really want a foreign terrorist country controlling a port. Knkita Khrushchev was right when he said "Give a capitalist enough money and he will sell you the rope that you will hang him with".
WAKE UP AMERICA!!
Posted by: Christina at January 14, 2008 07:33 PM
Sorry, TomR, I can't prove you wrong or give you some optimism. You are spot on. If Dubai and other oil producing Arab and Muslim countries buy up the United States then the illegal alien problem is theirs. Let's see how they will feel when they have to Press #1 to hear something in Arabic.
Posted by: Les at January 14, 2008 07:47 PM
Darth, I guess since they couldn't do the ports the other way they have figured out a way to come in and control this way. grrrrr
When I read this all I could feel was a sinking feeling of how our country will regret this happening.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 15, 2008 01:18 AM
Lynn,yes, isn't it absolutely crazy, This is so stupid and so very dangerous too.
It could be better if done like you said, but few in power want that to happen. I wish they agreed with all of us on here.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 15, 2008 01:20 AM
Tom, I agree with Les I wish I could prove you wrong too. But everything you said just seems to be how it is and how it has been happening.
I too am very worried about who owns who in this next election. Hunter isn't owned by anyone but then look how he is hard to find things on too. I try hard to get videos of his speaking engagements but they just aren't available and it more then likely is money and he can't be bought.
Thompson is a good man I think but I am leary of not wanting to be disappointed again. So far I am impressed how he speaks up to the media and does not kiss up to them like all the others do except for Hunter. If these two men could be on a ticket would they win? I hope so, but probably not. It is shocking for me to see conservatives say they want Rudy, or someone else that is such an obvious rino. Rino's will be total gllobalist like Bush has been.
I read someplace that the only President we have had in a long time that was not a globalist was Ronald Reagan. That is very telling.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 15, 2008 01:27 AM
Christina, I wish more people would wake up. Too few see what is happening, too few even care.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 15, 2008 01:28 AM
Les, yikes and your right that could happen. And newspapers too in both languages.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 15, 2008 01:29 AM
