THE Chinese businessman behind plans to build a waterway across Nicaragua to rival the Panama Canal said yesterday that his ambitious project is no joke and is backed by experienced consultants, despite skepticism that the 40-year-old can deliver the US$40 billion project.

"We don't want it to become an international joke, and we don't want it to turn into an example of Chinese investment failures," Wang Jing, chairman and owner of Hong Kong-based HKND Group, told a news conference in Beijing.

Wang, a relative newcomer whose business history prior to 2010 is virtually unknown, got approval from Nicaragua's government earlier this month for HKND to study, and possibly build and run a shipping channel across the Central American country. Some Nicaraguan lawmakers and residents have expressed reservations about the company's competence.

"The world trade has been so developed today that it needs a new canal," Wang said. "The Panama Canal is not enough for the trade conducted currently between East and West."

Early assessments of the project have been favorable, taking into account future economic growth of the US and China as well as the enormous Chinese appetite for mineral resources from Latin America, according to Wang.

"There has been a huge amount of data and business modeling, and the results are considerably optimistic," he said. "The return is sure to make every investor smile broadly."

Wang said his consultants on the project have rich experience and include US-based McKinsey & Co and China's biggest construction firm, the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp.

He said his team is proposing ways to minimize risk, for example by routing the canal through the middle of Nicaragua to avoid any potential border dispute with neighboring Costa Rica.