China Eximbank provides RMB 110 million government concessional loan for Hall 5 of Cairo International Convention Center Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#436)

On June 17, 2006, the Chinese Government and the Government of Egypt signed a preferential loan framework agreement, which specified the terms on which the Government of Egypt could borrow up to RMB 400 million ($61 million) from China Eximbank for the Cairo International Conference Center (CICC) Refurbishment and Hotel Construction Project. It specified a 2% interest rate. However, the specified maturity length and grace period are unknown. This framework agreement was presented to and considered by the Egyptian Parliament in December 2006 ( تقديم قرض تفضيلى من الصين الى مصر لايتجاوز 400 مليون يوان صينى لتنفيذ مشروع تطوير وتأهيل مركز القاهرة الدولى للمؤتمرات وبناء فندق ملحق). The original purpose of this project was to rehabilitate the Cairo International Conference Center (CICC or 开罗国际会议中心 or مركز القاهرة الدولي للمؤتمرات), which was constructed during the 1980s with financial support from the Chinese Government, and to build a five-star hotel at or near the CICC). It was originally envisaged that the hotel would cover 20,000 square meters and have 300 rooms. Construction was expected to take 24 months. However, this project appears to have been substantially rescoped and downsized. On May 12, 2008, the Chinese Embassy on Egypt reported that Shanghai Construction Engineering Group (SCG) (上海建工) had signed a project implementation contract with the Egyptian General Authority for Exhibitions (EGAE). The contract stipulated that EGAE would use the proceeds from a previously committed concessional loan to fully finance an RMB 110 million contract with SCG. The purpose of the contract was for SCG to construct Hall 5 (“No. 5 building”, “5th Hall”, or “5号馆”) at the CICC. Hall 5 is a building that covers an area of 13,500 meters^2, and contains a corridor connecting it to the showroom complex on one side and Hall 4 on the other. The display area is 4550 meters^2 and it has a maximum load on its floor of 2.5 tons/sq.m as well as ceiling height of 11 meters. A formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on December 26, 2008. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克强) and Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry, Rachid Mohammed Rachid, participated in the ceremony. However, construction did not begin until July 20, 2009. According to SCG, it had to evacuate all 13 of its employees working on the CICC — specifically, those constructing Hall 5 — due to large scale demonstrations and riots on February 22, 2011. However, on November 15, 2011, the project was officially completed and handed over to the local authorities.

Additional details

This project is also known as the Cairo International Conference Center Rehabilitation and Five-Star Affiliated Hotel Construction Project. The Chinese project title is 开罗国际会议中心改造和附属酒店建设项目 or 开罗国际会议中心配套工程 or 的开罗国际会议中心新建5号馆正 or 建的开罗会议中心新建五号馆项目 or 五号馆项目 or 开罗国际会议中心新建5号馆项目 or 开罗国际会议中心新建五号馆项目 or 五号馆工程. The Arabic project title is تأهيل وتطوير مركز القاهرة الدولى للمؤتمرات وبناء فندق ملحق به or مركز القاهرة الدولى للمؤتمرات وانشاء فندق خمسة نجوم تابع للمركز. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it identifies the face value of the China Eximbank loan that supported this project as $61 million (RMB 400 million). AidData records the amount (RMB 110 million) that it knows the Government of Egypt borrowed under the terms of the RMB 400 million preferential loan framework agreement. In June 2008, Egyptian Presidential Decree No.134 merged the CICC and EGAE together. Then, in October 2009, Egyptian Presidential Decree No.345 renamed the merged organizations as the Egypt Exposition and Convention Authority (EECA)

Number of official sources

20

Number of total sources

31