Chinese Government provides WST 30.1 million grant — via ETCA — for the NUS Ocean Campus Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#71882)

Project narrative

In 2012, the Chinese Government provided a grant worth WST 30,140,201 to the Government of Samoa for the National University of Samoa (NUS) Ocean Campus Construction Project. The grant proceeds were at least partially drawn from an economic and technical cooperation agreement (ETCA) that the two governments signed in April 2012 (captured via Record ID#71882). The purpose of the project was to construct an NUS School of Maritime Training & Marine Research Campus at Mulinu’u Point. The campus was to include a dormitory for live-in students, a conference room, a computer room, a simulator room, lecture halls, and a small built-in wharf for training. Upon completion, the campus was expected to serve as a scientific research center and help prepare Samoans for employment with International shipping companies. In 2009 after the closure of a maritime school at Toloa, Mulifanua, an NUS council approached the Government of Samoa for a plot of land to establish a new maritime school. A project feasibility study was then undertaken with financial support from another ETCA that the Samoan and Chinese governments signed on January 14, 2010 (captured via Record ID#72282). Then, in 2011, the Government of Samoa brought a proposal for the NUS Ocean Campus Construction Project to the Cabinet’s Development Committee. The Development Committee approve the proposal. The proposal was then submitted to the Chinese Government in 2012, and during the same year, China International Design and Consult Ltd visited Samoa and met with the NUS council to discuss the proposal and identify various architectural aspects of the project. Hunan Construction Engineering Group Corporation was the contractor responsible for implementation. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 10, 2014. An official opening ceremony for the newly-built campus took place on November 6, 2015 on the newly-built campus.