Chinese Government provides LSL 110 million grant for China-Lesotho Friendship Middle School Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#55871, ETCAs #1402, #71728, #30280)

Project narrative

On January 6, 2012 and January 16, 2012, the Chinese Ambassador to Lesotho and Lesotho’s Minister of Finance signed an exchange of letters for the China-Lesotho Friendship Middle School Construction Project. According to an interview with the Chinese Ambassador to Lesotho, a follow-up agreement was signed in 2014 and the Chinese Government provided LSL 110 million of grant funding construction of this school. The grant funding for this project was likely drawn at least in part from a set of Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements (ETCAs) that the two governments signed in October 2007 (#71728), December 2011 (#1402), and June 2012 (#30280). This project involved the construction of middle school — in the suburbs of Maseru on the Sehlabeng Thuathe plateau in Berea district — with the capacity to accommodate more than 600 students. The school included 15 classrooms, a 312-person capacity lecture hall, a library, and three fully-furnished laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology. The dormitory zone consisted of two apartment blocks with seven apartments for teachers and administrators. The school also has a sporting facility, which can be used for basketball, volleyball, netball, and tennis. Shandong Economic & Technical Cooperation Group was the contractor responsible for implementation. It signed an implementation contract with China’s Ministry of Commerce on October 9, 2014. Construction began in August 2015 and the Government of Lesotho’s Ministry of Education issued a project acceptance certificate on January 6, 2017. An official project handover ceremony took place on January 19, 2017. This school was later renamed Lesotho-China Fellowship Collegiate. The Chinese Government later donated a water supply system to the school in 2017 (captured in #55871).