Chinese Government provides RMB 33 million interest-free loan for Phase 1 of High-Performance Computing Center Project (Linked to Project ID #62405, #62408)

In 2015, the Chinese Government provided an RMB 33 million interest-free loan for Phase 1 of the High Performance Computing Center. This loan was originally intended for the 2015-2017 timeframe but was not actually distributed for unspecified reasons. Then, on April 3, 2018 during President Emmerson Mnangawa's visit to China, the two sides signed bilateral cooperation agreements in the fields of economy and technology, agriculture, science and technology, and human resources development. At the time of signing, Zimbabwe was still processing paperwork related to the RMB 33 million transaction from 2015. This project involved the installation of a supercomputer facility (high-performance computing center) at the University of Zimbabwe. The facility was expected to be used in agriculture, weather forecast, mining, gene technology, and stimulation, and support scientific research in Zimbabwe. The project also involved the training of dozens of Zimbabwean researchers on how to operate the supercomputer. Inspur Group — China's leading personal computer and server manufacturer — and Dameng were both involved in the implementation of the project. On February 6, 2015, the project was officially completed and and handed over to the University of Zimbabwe. In 2017, the Chinese Government supported Phase 2 of this project with an RMB 100 million grant (see Project ID #62405). Another Chinese Government grant was provided in 2018 (see Project ID #62408).

Additional details

The Chinese project title is 津巴布韦超算中心 or 津巴布韦超算中心项目 or 津巴布韦大学高性能计算中心第一阶段. Since loan terms for the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set maturity period to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity period of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. AidData treats the drawdown period as providing 5 years of additional grace.

Number of official sources

10

Number of total sources

12