Фото: ahmed nasser, unsplash.com
Alyaksandr Lukashenka spoke at the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly about plans to build a resort in Oman. According to him, a land plot has already been allocated, design work is under way, and construction will be carried out by private investors, including an Emirati company involved in the development of the Northern Shore project in Minsk.
“Today Oman — I deliberately visited this country, and my good relations with the Sultan of Oman are already producing results, so I will boast to you as well. We spent quite a lot of time together discussing issues. What did I ask him for? Oman is not even the Emirates, yes, desert and all that. But there are also mountains — mountain, valley, mountain, valley. And people live in the valleys, with unique nature. An open ocean.
The Emirates are still the Persian Gulf, while here it is the open Indian Ocean. And I tell him: we are friends with you, friends, so why not allocate a piece of land so that we could build some kind of Belarusian tourist facility there. It is only 40 minutes from the Emirates. We already have a direct flight.
We would add more, if people were eager to go there, and people would go if it were something of their own. You know, more than 200 hectares — listen, this is not like allocating land in Belarus. He allocated this plot for us: ‘Agreed — build.’ And I am not using budget funds. We have private investors who are ready to get involved, even Emirati companies are interested in construction, including the one that is building this Northern Shore for us. He is ready to get involved there — Alabbar or whatever his name is — and build.
So let private investors invest money, and I guarantee that there will be additional flights, there is an international airport there, and Oman is a unique place. The part where I was, Muscat, the capital, is a very hot spot. Belarusians can live there for three months. As for me, one month is enough. I do not tolerate heat well at all. I do not like heat.
But closer to Yemen there are these monsoon winds, they say they blow from India — the temperature there never exceeds 27–30 degrees. A unique place, and he is allocating these lands to us. And we are ready to start construction without using budget funds. But I am even interested in having the state invest there somewhere so that we can receive part of this income. Well, if our private investors receive part of the income, I make sure that these are decent people and that the state benefits from it. But the main thing is that our people go there as if it were their home, so that it is our own kind of enclave in that place.
Design work is under way, and in the coming years we will begin building this city within a city. Then on the last day the Sultan invited me onto his yacht: let’s sail along the coast, I will show you Oman. We go. There are these volcanic mountains, their peaks have been leveled and construction is under way. He says: Trump is building this. Of course, Trump is not building anything there. He lent his name to someone, Saudi money, and they are building along about five kilometers on the mountains. The mountains seem somewhat soft, they leveled them, and they are already building these hotels and so on.
I figured it out — a unique place. Everyone is rushing there. That is what tourism is. And I want our people — it will not take 25 years, Alyaksandr Ryhoravich, we will do it faster — to have our first tourists fly there and have the opportunity to walk along the Indian Ocean. The Maldives are very close there. If someone wants, they can hop over to the Maldives. Although hardly. I think we need to move in this direction, so that our people have something of their own somewhere,” Lukashenka said.