Chinese Government provides CVE 1.1 billion grant for Presidential Palace Renovation and Expansion Project (Linked to Project ID#72861)

On December 30, 2011, the Chinese Government and the Government of Cape Verde signed letters of exchange regarding a Presidential Palace Renovation and Expansion Project. This project appears to have been financed with a CVE 1.1 billion (9.9 million euro) grant from China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). The project involved expanding the grounds of the presidential palace, which is located in the capital city of Praia, to 4,000 square meters and renovating major spaces (such as a banquet hall and an administrative building) while maintaining the historic character of the building. It also involved reinforcement and renovation of an observation deck, a fence, and a gate. The palace was originally built by the Portuguese during the colonial era. China IPPR International Engineering Co. Ltd. and Shaanxi Huashan International Engineering were the contractors responsible for project design and implementation. A formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 25, 2014, but construction did not begin until May 25, 2014. From November 16, 2015 to November 25, 2015, a team of experts from MOFCOM visited the project site and it passed inspection. Construction ended in October 2015. The project was then handed over to the Government of Cape Verde on December 15, 2015 and public officials started working in their new office spaces in January 2016. An official inauguration ceremony took place on April 16, 2016. Then, in 2017, the Chinese Government funded a technical cooperation project to maintain and renovate the palace (captured in Project ID#72861)."

Additional details

The Portuguese project title is Projecto de Ampliação e Recuperação do Palácio da Presidência da República or Reabilitação e Requalificação do Edifício do Palácio da Presidência. The Chinese project title is 佛得角总统府改扩建项目 or 援佛得角总统府改扩建项目 or 得角总统府改扩建项目. The Government of Cape Verde, in its ‘Conta Geral do Estado 2015’ publication, claims that the project was essentially financed by a donation (“essencialmente, financiado por Donativo”). Therefore, AidData has coded the project as grant-financed. However, one (media) source suggests that this project was supported in part by a Chinese Government loan that was issued in January 2012. The database of Chinese loan commitments to African governments that SAIS-CARI released in 2020 does not identify a loan for this project. This issue merits further investigation.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

21