Chinese Government provides a RMB 30 million interest-free loan — via a March 2002 ETCA — for unspecified purposes

On March 22, 2002, the Chinese Government and the Ministry of Finance of Tunisia signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), in which the Chinese Government committed an RMB 30 million interest-free loan to Tunisia for unspecified purposes (see 'Liste des prets chinois octroyés à la Tunisie pour le financement des projets'). Then, during Chinese President Jiang Zemin's state visit to Tunisia in April 2002, he and President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali signed an agreement about the provision of interest-free loans to Tunisia (see 'President Jiang Zemin Held Talks with Tunisian President'). Then, on April 13, 2004, the Tunisian Government passed Law nº 2004-32, confirming the agreement. The Tunisian Government then ratified this ETCA on May 13, 2004 via Decree n° 2004-1067. Tunisia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was responsible for the implementation of this decree (see pg.1256 of 'Jort N° 031/2004 - Version Française').

Additional details

This loan was not included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI published in July 2020.Based on its experience with ETCAs, AidData has coded Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) as Chinese government institution responsible for the interest-free loan in this ETCA. Since loan terms for the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set maturity period to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity period of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. AidData treats the drawdown period as providing 5 years of additional grace.

Number of official sources

5

Number of unofficial sources

4