FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern played a role in Seán Mulryan’s Ballymore Group being invited to pitch for a multimillion-euro project in China.

The property group was contacted by the regional authorities of the Anhui province in China and asked if the group would be interested in masterplanning the construction of a business district and city on the banks of the Yangtze.

The group, which has substantial loans that have been transferred to Nama, believes the opportunity could provide substantial fees when many of its experienced staff are not busy because of the slump in building activity.

A source with knowledge of the project said he understood that Mr Ahern had a role as an adviser to the China Investment Corporation, an enormous Chinese sovereign wealth fund that had in excess of $400 billion in assets at the end of 2010.

An email request for a comment to Mr Ahern’s office in St Luke’s, Drumcondra, on Friday met with no response.

Attempts to contact the office by phone were not successful.

Mr Ahern is understood to have mentioned Mr Mulryan to the authorities in Anhui during a visit there when a senior figure in the province said he was a admirer of Canary Wharf in London.

Mr Ahern then said that Mr Mulryan had played a substantial role in that development.

The group believes it could secure up to €10 million in fees if it was given the role of overseeing the development. However, it would not be involved as a building contractor and the project would not involve substantial risk for the group.

The group believes the idea could provide a line for a new stream of income at a time when it is not involved in any construction projects. Its involvement in the project has the blessing of Nama, according to the source.

Ballymore is unusual as a development group in that it handles so much design and oversight of its projects inhouse.

Mr Mulryan has been to Anhui to discuss the project and representatives of the group were in talks there last week.

The Anhui authorities want to build a new city on a greenfield site beside the Yangtze river, and have already built a bridge that would stretch from “Howth to Dún Laoghaire”.

Roads have already been built but the layout of the new city, in an area which is currently agricultural, has not yet been decided.

“The scale of what is being done is unbelievable,” said the source.

Funding is not an issue as much as the pace at which the local authorities want to proceed.

The site, at Jiangbei, is about three hours inland from Shanghai, and there are plans for another new city some miles upriver.

The project has the approval of the central government in Beijing.

Mr Ahern met the chairman and chief executive of the China Investment Corporation, Lou Jiwei, in May during a visit to Beijing.

Mr Lou is considered to be one of the most influential people in the world.