China Eximbank provides $81 million loan for Phase 1 of Maya-Maya International Airport Project (Linked to Project ID#60219 and #141)

On June 19, 2006, China Eximbank and the Republic of Congo signed a $1.6 billion loan framework agreement — also known in the Republic of Congo as the “strategic partnership” (“partenariat stratégique”) — that allowed the Republic of Congo to obtain China Eximbank loans for infrastructure projects through a securitization mechanism: Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)—the country’s state-owned oil company — agreed to deposit a portion of the cash proceeds from its oil exports into an escrow account that is controlled by China Eximbank. This framework agreement (captured in Project ID#60219) was ratified on October 26, 2006. Two of the subsidiary loans that were approved through the framework agreement included a $81 million loan in 2007 for Phase 1 of the Maya-Maya International Airport Project (captured in this project, ID#161) and a $72 million loan for Phase 2 of the Maya-Maya International Airport Project (captured in Project ID#141). The borrowing terms of these loans were as follows: 0.25% interest rate, 20-year maturity, and 5-year grace period. This project involved the construction and equipping of Maya-Maya International Airport Project in the capital city of Brazzaville. Phase 1 involved the construction of a terminal building (including viaducts and a parking lot with 800 spaces). It was launched on August 7, 2007 and completed on June 1, 2011. Phase 2 involved the installation of runway equipment and the construction of an airport hotel and an aviation club. It was completed on August 15, 2014. Weihai International Economic & Technical Cooperative Co., Ltd (WIETC) was the contractor responsible for implementation of both phases.This project and project ID#141 were funded through export buyer's credits, however, it is unclear if all the subsidiary loans approved under the 2006 framework agreement (Project ID#60219) were buyer’s credit loans.

Additional details

The Chinese project title is 布拉柴维尔机场项目 or 玛雅－玛雅机场为刚果 or 马亚-马亚国际机场 or MayaMaya国际机场. Phase 1 is sometimes also referred to as the Maya-Maya International Airport Construction Project. Several sources refer to a “$160 million loan” from China Eximbank for the project, which likely reflects the sum total of China Eximbank’s lending for Project ID#161 and Project ID#141. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it identifies a single $136 million China Eximbank loan for Maya-Maya International Airport Project. AidData records two separate China Eximbank loans — for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Maya-Maya International Airport Project, respectively — that the Congolese authorities disclosed to the World Bank and the World Bank reported in its September 2014 Republic of Congo Economic Update publication.

Number of official sources

16

Number of unofficial sources

8