MOFCOM provides a RMB 240 million grant for the Ben Arous Youth Sports and Cultural Center Construction Project

Project narrative

On December 15, 2017, the Chinese Government and the Government of Tunisia signed an implementation agreement (French: le contrat d’exécution du projet; Chinese:《援突尼斯本·阿鲁斯青年体育文化中心建设项目实施合作协议》) for the Ben Arous Youth Sports and Cultural Center Construction Project. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was the specific Chinese Government institution responsible for financing this project. It provided RMB 240 million in grant funding for this project. The purpose of the project is to construct a Youth Cultural and Sports Center in Ben Arous (بن عروس), one of the municipalities in the southern suburbs of the capital city of Tunis. The center was located on a 5-hectare plot of land at the southern entrance and exit of the capital, near the A1 motorway. It was designed to have 15,500 square meters of indoor facilities which would include a swimming pool, gymnasiums, an administrative section, auditoriums, an accommodation block with 100 beds, and training, sports, and leisure rooms. Its outdoor facilities were planned to cover 6,500 square meters and include 2 mini-football fields, a volleyball court, a handball court, a basketball court, 2 tennis courts, and a skate park. China National Machinery Industry Construction Group Co., Ltd. (Sinomach) was the contractor responsible for project implementation. It was selected by MOFCOM on September 7, 2018, after placing a winning bid for the project. MOFCOM, the East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. (ECADI) (now known as Huajian Group East China Architectural Design and Research Institute), and Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. were jointly responsible for project design and management. Then, from mid-November to mid-December 2017, Beijing Institute of Geological & Prospecting Engineering (BIGPE) conducted pre-implementation geological survey work at the project site. The project was planned to begin implementation prior to December 31, 2018, with a construction period of 24 months. This date came and went, with a formal inauguration planned on January 11, 2019. However, during pre-implementation work, on January 9, 2019, Chinese workers, aided by staff from Tunisia's Ministry of Youth and Sports and Ministry of Culture, uncovered a Roman-era archaeological site. This discovery, while appreciated for its cultural value to Tunisia and the future Ben Arous Youth Sports and Cultural Center, caused a halt in implementation in order to determine the scope of the archaeological site to allow the Tunisian Government and its Chinese partners to make a decision on how to proceed. Tunisia's National Heritage Institute asked that construction stop to allow it to excavate the site and it sent a scientific team to oversee the archaeological excavation; its work found engravings believed to belong to a Roman temple dedicated to the deity Saturn, alongside other evidence of ancient settlement. After this delay, the project's formal groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 21, 2019 with Prime Minister of Tunisia Youssef Chahed in attendance. China and Tunisia signed a handover certificate for the small football field project. Construction successfully completed in July 2022. On August 9, 2022, Ambassador Zhang Jianguo, Tunisian Minister of Youth and Sports Diguis/Digish, Ben Arous Governor Cherbi and others toured and inspected the completed facilities. The formal project handover ceremony was held on September 9, 2022. Nizar Zoghlami, project supervisor at the Tunisian Ministry of Equipment, made the announcement on Friday at a handover ceremony in the Ben Arous Province, adding the center will be opened to the public soon and bring a lot of happiness to Tunisians. Since 2019, the project has been suspended three times due to the excavation of ancient Roman ruins on site and the epidemic. As a result, China and Tunisia plan to set up an archaeological expert team to jointly excavate the project site, give the project new cultural significance, and create new highlights for China-Tunisia cooperation.