Chinese Government provides RMB 100 million interest-free loan for the Sudan Presidential Palace Office Building Construction Project

On 2 February 2007, at Friendship Hall in Khartoum, Sudan's President Umar al-Bashir and China's President Hu Jintao signed an RMB 100 million interest-free loan agreement for the Presidential Palace Office Construction Project (See: Sudan, China sign seven cooperation accords). The other loan terms are unknown. This project involved the construction of an office building (with a total construction area of ​​18,700 square meters) at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum. The building is located on the Nile River, adjacent to the Old Presidential Palace and the Presidential Palace Museum. Chongqing Foreign Construction Corporation, a subsidiary of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Group Co., Ltd, was the contractor responsible for implementation. On 22 June 2009, Chinese Ambassador Li Chengwen signed a supplementary exchange of letters for this project. The formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on 15 March 2011. Construction was completed in May 2014 and an opening ceremony took place on 26 January 2015.

Additional details

This project is also known as the Presidential Office Building Project. The Chinese project title is 苏丹总统府办公楼项目 or 援苏丹总统府办公楼项目. The Arabic project title is القصر الجمهوري.The Government of Sudan’s Ministry of International Cooperation (published on or around 2008) identifies the transaction amount as $23 million rather than $13 million, but this appears to be an outlier estimate.

Number of official sources

7

Number of unofficial sources

13