Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In January 2001, the Chinese Ambassador to Suriname announced that the Chinese government would provided grant funding to rebuild the historic Ministry of Foreign Affairs building that was destroyed by fire in the mid-1990s. The grant originally was to consist of 2.5 million USD, provided through an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) signed by representatives of the two governments on December 24, 1999. However, on August 9, 2001, an additional ETCA was signed that granted another 2.5 million USD to the project, for a total of 5 million USD. A survey and design contract was signed on December 14, 2001. A supplementary contract was signed May 28, 2002, and a construction contract was signed May 5, 2004. Construction began on October 16, 2004, carried out by Weihai International Economic and Technical Cooperation Co. Ltd., a Chinese company. The project was completed in November 2005 and handed over to the authorities on June 13, 2006. The opening ceremony occurred on June 15, 2006. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs building is three stories, has an attic, and covers 3,500 square meters. The Chinese Government also funded an auxiliary building to the main office building for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Record ID#56150) and donated furniture to fully equip the Ministry building (Record ID#56155). The Chinese project title is 中国援苏里南外交部办公楼.
Staff comments
One media source ("China gives Surinam 2.5 million dollar grant") about the ETCA in Record ID#63828 indicates that grant, provided January 2003, went towards this project. However, this is contradicted by a Chinese Embassy source ("中国援苏里南外交部办公楼启用仪式在苏举行") and an academic source ("Chinese new migrants..."), and thus the more official sources have been used to write the description/code the commitment year. Separate umbrella projects not created for ETCAs, because it appears both were completely used to fund this project.