Just outside the Angolan capital Luanda, China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) has built a huge city called Nova Cidade de Kilamb, capable of housing 500 000 people. The problem is no one lives there. According to the BBC, the apartments cost between 120 000 and 200 000 US$, while the average Angolan's BNP is 5 144. Allegedly, the city was built in 3 years and cost $3.5bn (£2.2bn).
I guess this is a perfect example of capitalism. Price too high = ghost town.
Nyet, comrade.
"Kilamba has been built by the state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC)"
This much stupidity can only be created by government. Capitalism is free exchange between people. This ain't that.
Maybe they have a mining deal with Angola and this is just a setup for Chinese to move in
Nope, perfect example of socialism/communism run amok. Private investors would never have built this complex without some assurance that people could afford to live there... and would have started with one building to test the market before building another... not toss up a whole town!
Further, if a Capitalist was stupid enough to pull off this project the way the government did... he would have dropped rent to a level that people would move in an effort to offset some of his losses.
Doesn't matter which system of government was used. The leeches from the gubberment have already profitted from the kickbacks. They wouldn't give a rat's ass of the outcome.
lol.. *shakes fist at Flee*
I agree the scale and setting here takes that special kind of Chinese touch, but I think your statement ought to be "Private investors would never (...) unless they thought they could profit and get away from it before the bubble burst." After all, ghost towns and inflated credit aren't unrelated phenomena, and I think we can agree private investors have in fact very much been dabbling in the latter lately. Or perhaps "The responsible private investor would never.."?
This is the reason I found this particularly interesting too. Angola has oil, but even so, housing for half a million people? What are those devious Chinese up to? 
Is there a plan, or is it as absurd as it looks? It's hardly the first brand new ghost town they've created recently either.
I agree with the part of price too high, ghost town. But since it was built by the GOVT then no on the Capitalism bit.
Actually, looks like they have it built it in sections (diff sectors for diff people/types), there are also schools by the looks of it, what catches my eyes are the buildings that are completely closed in with watch towers. Hmm!
I will concur with that correction.
