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Overview

Chinese Government cancels $32 million of Rwanda's outstanding debt obligations

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$53,170,065
Commitment Year•2007Country of Activity•RwandaDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•RwandaSector•Action Relating To DebtFlow Type•Debt forgiveness

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
May 19, 2007
Start (actual)
May 19, 2007
End (actual)
May 19, 2007

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Funding agencies

Government Agencies

  • China Ministry of Commerce

Receiving agencies

Government Agencies

  • Government of Rwanda

Loan desecription

Chinese Government cancels $32 million of Rwanda's outstanding debt obligations

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

During a five day visit to China on May 14-19, 2007, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Chinese President Hu Jintao signed an agreement canceling all of the Government of Rwanda's outstanding debt obligations 'through 2005'. According to the IMF, these obligations were worth $32 million. The US Embassy in Kigali has corroborated the deal.

Staff comments

The debts that were cancelled almost certainly refer to interest-free loans that were contracted on or before 2005. This record is not coded as an umbrella project because AidData does not capture any Chinese Government loan-financed projects in Rwanda prior to 2009, so there is little to no risk of double-counting. SAIS-CARI’s dataset of China’s debt relief from 2000 to 2019 does not identify the monetary value of this act of debt forgiveness. AidData relies on IMF Country Report No. 09/58 for its estimate of the monetary value of the outstanding debts that were cancelled. Some sources suggest that the Chinese Government cancelled $160 million of outstanding debt obligations. However, this appears to be a reporting error, which may be attributable to confusion over the currency of denomination (RMB or USD).