Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On October 13, 2011, the Chinese Government pledged to forgive RMB 100,000,000 (CFA 8.2 billion francs) of the Government of Togo’s outstanding debt obligations. The formal agreement for the debt cancellation (Chinese name:《中多政府关于免除多哥政府部分到期债务的协议》) was signed on May 24, 2012 by the Government of China and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Togolese Republic. The debts cancelled came from two interest-free loans previously contracted by the Government of Togo: a RMB 50 million loan contracted on December 20, 1996, and a RMB 50 million loan contracted on October 11, 1997. Both of these loans matured on or before December 31, 2009. It was expected that the cancellation of debts would help Togo achieve its Millennium Development Goals.
Staff comments
AidData has assumed based on numerous reports in English, French, and Chinese that indicate that the debt was formally cancelled in May 2012 that the agreement signed in October 2011 was a pledge of some kind, such as a memorandum of understanding, to cancel debt, and not the formal cancellation agreement. One source suggests the value of the debts that were forgiven was actually RMB 99,913,900 rather than RMB 100,000,000. This debt forgiveness project is not marked as an umbrella project since the original loans were contracted before 2000, so there is no risk of double counting.