For the Asian leg of the project he will work in a village in China's Huadu district north east of the city of Guangzhou.

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Experts from Shandong, a province in the north-east of China, were asked to produce a feasibility study, and the government now proposes to start work.

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From late December, visitors flock to this city in Heilongjiang Province in the north-east of China to experience one of the finest ice and snow festivals anywhere in the world.

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Doede, who chairs the private equity AIG Silk Road Fund, spent an average of a week a month for four and a half years looking for "a neglected opportunity" in the politically and economically dicey part of the world stuck between Russia to the north, China to the east and Iran and Pakistan to the south.

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The company has operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Asian-Pacific region and North America, but China projects account for 83% of revenue.

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