Eritrea’s Halibet Housing Project: Diaspora Dollars Fuel Real Estate Vision
Eritrea finds new ways to earn hard currency Thursday 22 June 2006 01:15. Printer-Friendly version Comments... June 21, 2006 (ASMARA) — It may look like a truck park by Asmara’s Halibet Hospital on the edge of town, but the Eritrean government, keen to tap the hard currency held by the large Eritrean diaspora, has other plans. The poor Red Sea state plans 766 "new residential-style" two and three-bedroom apartments there, with shopping centres and sports facilities, the project’s Web site halibet.com says. The prices, between $97,000 and $139,000, are low by London and New York standards, but out of reach for most Eritreans whose average income is just $130 per year. Eritrea Halibet Housing Project Glossy brochures are available in Eritrean embassies abroad and payment can be made in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds but not in nakfa, the national currency. The government has hard currency reserves equal to only one month of imports, according to the Internati...