Chinese Government cancels CVE 1.6 billion of Government of Cape Verde’s outstanding debt obligations

In November 2006 during the Beijing Summit for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to cancel any debt from interest-free loans contracted by heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) and 33 less developed countries (LDCs) in Africa -- including Cape Verde -- scheduled to begin repayment at the end of 2005. Then, in May 2007, the Chinese Government and the Government of Cape Verde signed a debt exemption protocol, which cancelled all interest-free loans that the Government of Cape Verde had previously contracted. All of these loans matured on or before December 31, 2005. According to the Government of Cape Verde's Court of Auditors, the total amount of debt forgiven was equivalent to CVE 1,591,300,000.

Additional details

Some sources indicate that the amount of debt forgiven was RMB 30 million. However, AidData relies on the (higher) value reported by the Government of Cape Verde's Court of Auditors. This loan is not marked as umbrella as our dataset does not capture any interest-free loans prior to 2005, so there is no risk of double counting.

Number of official sources

8

Number of total sources

17