Chinese Government cancels RMB 470 million of the Government of Sudan’s outstanding repayment obligations (Linked to Project ID#85348)

On February 2, 2007, at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, Sudan, Sudan's President Umar al-Bashir and China's President Hu Jintao signed a debt exemption protocol, which cancelled two sets of interest-free loans: one denominated in RMB and the other denominated in USD. The Chinese Government reportedly forgave RMB 470 million (captured via Project ID#1579) and an additional $19 million (captured via Project ID#85348) of the Government of Sudan’s outstanding loan repayment obligations.

Additional details

1. The PRC made a concerted effort in 2007 to forgive the debt from interest-free loans maturing by the end of 2005 to heavily-indebted African countries (http://kp.china-embassy.org/chn//zgxw/zgzxxw/t293317.htm). 2. Since interest-free loans usually have 20 year maturities (http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2011-04/21/content_1850553.htm), we have assumed the loans included in this debt forgiveness package would have been contracted before 2000. As such, this project is not marked as umbrella, as there is little risk of double counting.

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

11