China Eximbank provides $150 million buyer's credit loan for Railroad Rehabilitation Project

On December 15, 2003, China Eximbank signed a buyer's credit loan agreement with the Governemnt of Venezuela's Finance Minister for a Railroad Rehabilitation Project. The total cost of the project was $188,490,000, and China Eximbank agreed to cover 80% of the total cost (or approximately $150,000,000). This project involved the rehabilitation of two railway segments: Cabello-Barquisimeto (137 km in length) and Yaritagua-Acarigua (67 km in length). Yankuang Group was the contractor responsible for implementation. Project implementation began on May 15, 2004. However, multiple reports from 2007 indicate that the project experienced implementation delays because of slow payments from Venezuela's state railway autonomous institute. The Venezuelan high-speed railway project has almost been abandoned with the construction site being overgrown with weeds. Due to Venezuela's inability to pay off its debts, many Chinese adminstrators withdrew.

Additional details

1. The project is also called the 'Railroad System Rehabilitation Project of Venezuela'. The Chinese project title is 委内瑞拉铁路改造项目. The Spanish project title El Plan Ferroviario Nacional'. 2. This project is also associated with the 'Complementary Accord of the Economic and Technical Agreement for the Rehabilitation of the Midwestern Railway System'.

Number of official sources

2

Number of total sources

13