China Eximbank provides $53 million loan for Ollombo Airport Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#60219)

On June 19, 2006, China Eximbank and the Republic of Congo signed a $1.6 billion loan framework agreement — also known in the Republic of Congo as the “strategic partnership” (“partenariat stratégique”) — that allowed the Republic of Congo to obtain China Eximbank loans for infrastructure projects through a securitization mechanism: Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)—the country’s state-owned oil company—agreed to deposit a portion of the cash proceeds from its oil exports into an escrow account that is controlled by China Eximbank. This framework agreement (captured in Project ID#60219) was ratified on October 26, 2006. One of the subsidiary loans that was approved through the framework agreement was a $53 million loan in 2006 for the Ollombo Airport Construction Project. The estimated borrowing terms of the loan are as follows: 0.25% interest rate, 16.5-year maturity, and 4-year grace period. Its (principal) amount outstanding was $3,118.155 as of December 31, 2019. This project involved the construction of Ollombo International Airport, which is located 9 km (5.6 mi) southwest of Oyo, near the village of Ollombo, and 450 km north of Brazzaville. More specifically, the project involved the construction of terminals, a tower, and power control center. China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Cooperation Corporation was the contractor responsible for project implementation. A project commencement ceremony took place on August 12, 2007. However, construction did not begin until October 2008 and ended on March 13, 2013. China Jiangsu International also carried out works on the Ollombo Airport Garage, between November 2013 and August 2014, but it is unclear if these works were funded with the proceeds from the same loan.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Oyo Ollombo Airport Construction Project. The Chinese project title is 奥龙博机场项目 or 奥龙博机场 or 江苏国际Ollombo机场 or 刚果(布）ollombo机场项目. The French project title is La construction des installations terminales de l’aéroport d’Ollombo or Aéroport International Denis SASSOU-N’GUESSO d’Ollombo. 2. The loan that supported this project is not included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020. Nor is it included in the the Chinese Overseas Development Finance Dataset published by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center in December 2020. However, the Congolese authorities disclosed the receipt of this loan to the World Bank, which it in turn reported in a September 2014 Republic of Congo Economic Update publication. 3. According to a 2019 report published by the Republic of Congo’s National Assembly, all loans approved under the framework agreement had an interest rate of 0.25%, maturities between 13 years and 20 years, and grace periods between 3 and 5 years. Therefore, since the maturity of the China Eximbank loan for the Ollombo Airport Construction Project is missing, AidData imputes a value (16.5 years) at the middle of the distribution of this maturity range as an approximation. Likewise, since the grace period of the loan is missing, AidData imputes a value (4 years) at the middle of the distribution of this range as an approximation.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

16