Chinese Government provides 5-year grace period extension on interest-free loan for construction of University of South Pacific Law School (Linked to Record ID#39295, #73393)

Project narrative

On November 25, 2003, the Chinese Government and the Government of Vanuatu signed a debt rescheduling agreement, which extended the length of the grace period for an interest-free loan that the Government of Vanuatu had contracted in 1995: a $10 million loan for the construction of the University of South Pacific (USP) Law School (see Record ID#39295) that was scheduled to enter its repayment period on November 26, 2003. At the time of the signing of the agreement, Vanuatu’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said, ‘So far, there has never been any loan payments made by the government towards the USP complex. However, the government intends to pay up within this next 5 years.’ Then, in 2013, USP announced that the Chinese Government had cancelled the Government of Vanuatu’s repayment obligations related to the loan that was issued for the construction of the USP Law School. This project captures the 5-year grace period extension and Record ID#73393 captures the cancellation of the Government of Vanuatu’s outstanding repayment obligations.