Dedicated Starship Construction State

I note that the estimated cost of the Orion mission to Alpha Centauri, adjusted for inflation, amounts to around two trillion dollars, which is the approximate GDP for Italy or India. There is an interesting contrast between the populations of those countries based presumably on their standards of living. Meanwhile, India has just launched something like a hundred satellites into space with one rocket and might be sending a probe to Venus. It's supposed to be the country of choice for space launches because it's so cheap.

There are certain parts of the world with fantastic mineral resources which, however, are for that very reason horrible places to live, with corruption, political instability and terrible working conditions for their citizens with enormous discrepancies in distribution of wealth.

However, there is also the ocean and manganese nodules, sea water with useful elements and the like.

My suggestion is this: cause to form or construct a new island out in international waters somewhere on the equator. Divert funding from all space programmes in all nations with them to this island. Create open borders for anyone who wishes to work there and incentivise people with the more relevant skills. Once there, minimise economic activity other than that required to research, build and launch starships, probably space arks, and space habitats within this solar system, and locate possible habitable planets. Allow any new ideas or technological fallout to be used royalty-free by the rest of the world. Also, allow anyone, from any nation, free access to the country if their income is below a certain level, up to a certain population, in return for working on the projects.

I'm sure this would never work and that you're about to point out why.