In Dubai cities are built in the desert and people migrate there!
Id daent have to have some natural resources underlying.

@impunity. Dubai was built using revenue from oil and Gas discovered in the early 60s.

Dubai's oil production is estimated to be about 240,000 barrels per day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Dubai

http://en.wikipedia.org/...he_United_Arab_Emirates

http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/dubai/


Konza neither has oil nor gas to fuel its economy.

@ahoo. If Govt can find another source of money apart from tax payer money and Worldbank loans paid back by taxpayers, we would have no problem .

Clarify on what you mean by Govt providing infrastructure.

Do you mean built up space for office/residence?

If its this, we already have infrastructure throughout the country for all classes, from Runda,Muthaiga to Kayole.
There is no relationship between provision of infrastructure in Konza and any sort of productivity wherer in IT or any industry.

A talented programmer will work as well from Muthaiga or from a 1 roomed shack in Mathare slums.
IBM,Microsoft etc have serious analysts who see through any sugar coated ideas so i doubt they would buy into such.

As we speak, over 80% of entities showing interest in Konza are Kenyan owned.

Artificialy created cities usually have unusually high cost of living since the human capital needed to enable reduction of costs is still not well formed eg Dubai.
No investor wants to set up in an expensive city. This means his cost of production will be higher , hence being less competitive.

Ever wondered why every rich neighbourhood has a slum nearby?

Now do an analysis of Bangalore India - Electronic City

@jamplu. Govt does not need to buy the land so as to effect the zoning controls. All it needs to do is create the by laws and enforce them. Unless someone in Govt would like to take advantage and eat, there is no need to buy the land.

For example, Govt can declare whre you currently live in Kenya to be zoned only for 10 floor highrise buildings, with parking for 100 cars, with ground coverage of 80% etc etc and this will become law whether you like it or not.


@murch. The taxpayers employed directly in konza are a drop in the ocean compared to money derived from all Kenyan taxpayers.If Konza gets say 10B from tax payers and pays a few guys 50m, there is a net loss of 9.5B to the economy.

Give examples of the tech smart city infrastructure then we compare. If possible, give video and picture comparison.

If you are one of the analysts for these blue chip IT firms, how comes you have not been able to convince them so as to tilt the over 80% local Konza investors?

Do you mean that firstly, the hass consults of this world will have to invest in Konza then the IBMs of this world later come to rent? How will the hass consults be assured that the real estate is suitable/appropriate for the IBMs?

Currently, Upper Hill and other leafy CBD suburbs have a lower cost of living eg taxi, food, photocopy etc coz of proximity to a over 100 yeas old city centre.

Its cheaper to do business from upper hill than from Konza.

New york city has brooklyn/harlem low income areas. London city has West London slums/Ealing area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbB0cQLY5Ao
http://www.theatlanticci...s-their-backyards/3867/

Land price is kes 200m per acre in Bangalore Electronic city.

http://pricetrends.makaa...pf=1&pt=3&tm=12

Compare this to Konza at 2 to 4m per acre.

This means that major ICT players are not inhibited by high land price so they can also afford Upper Hill with 200 to 300 m per acre prices.