Chinese Government provides $10.8 million interest-free loan for Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II Hospital Construction Project

In 2008, the Chinese Government and the Government of Jordan signed a $10,800,000 interest-free loan agreement for the Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II Hospital Construction Project. The loan proceeds were apparently drawn from two Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) that the two governments signed on December 6, 1999 (worth RMB 50 million) and December 15, 2003 (worth RMB 30 million). The project involved the construction of a 100-bed hospital (Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II Hospital) in the district of Ein Al Basha and the Governorate of Balqa (Balqā). The ultimate purpose of the project was to provide upgraded health facilities to the Governorate of Balqa where as many as 300,000 people (including 180,000 Palestinian refugees) could benefit from the hospital's services. Prior to the hospital's construction, there was no major medical facility within Governorate of Balqa. The hospital's location was designed to travel times for emergency patients. China Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) was the contractor responsible for implementation. A project design contract was issued on December 18, 2003. Then, on November 29, 2007, a project implementation contract was issued. On April 23, 2008, project implementation commenced and a commencement ceremony took place at the project site. On September 14, 2010, the hospital construction project was completed and officially inaugurated by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Balqa Hospital Project and the Baqa’a Hospital Project. The Chinese project title is 巴卡医院项目 or 约旦巴卡医院项目. The Arabic project title is مستشفى الأمير حسين الحكومي. 2. According to April 2018 correspondence between AidData’s Executive Director and the Public Debt Department of Jordan’s Ministry of Finance, the two interest-free loans that were signed on December 6, 1999 (Ministry of Finance loan identification #EC22013) and December 15, 2003 (Ministry of Finance loan identification #EC22020) fully disbursed. However, it is unclear if the combined value of these two loans were disbursed in support of the Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II Hospital Construction Project. This issue merits further investigation. 3. Since the borrowing terms of the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set the maturity to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default, per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. AidData treats the drawdown period as providing 5 years of additional grace.

Number of official sources

14

Number of total sources

20