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Overview

Chinese Government grants Cook Islands NZ $2,106,000 for Pearl Farming Equipment Project

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$1,791,132
Commitment Year•2014Country of Activity•Cook IslandsDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•Cook IslandsSector•Agriculture, Forestry, FishingFlow Type•Grant

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Mar 24, 2014
Start (actual)
Jan 28, 2015
End (actual)
Jan 28, 2015

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

Visualizes the AidData-provided feature geometry for this project.

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Manihiki, https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3830332

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Funding agencies

Government Agencies

  • Unspecified Chinese Government Institution

Receiving agencies

Government Agencies

  • Government of Cook Islands

Implementing agencies

Private Sector

  • LiuGong

State-owned companies

  • China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC)

Loan desecription

Chinese Government grants Cook Islands NZ $2,106,000 for Pearl Farming Equipment Project

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On March 24th, 2014, the Chinese Ambassador and Cook Islands Commissioner signed letters of exchange in Wellington for the Cook Islands Pearl Farming Equipment Project. On January 28th, 2015, a handover ceremony was held for the donation of the equipment, with NZ $2,106,000, in Avarua, on the Rarotonga Island. Chinese manufacturer LiuGong provided the equipment; most of it will be received by Infrastructure Cook Islands. Training will be provided to the operators and the contract between the government and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) stated the machines would be maintained by the Chinese company for the first 12 months. Ten 40 ft (12.2 meter) containers of ropes, floats, spat collectors, vomit bags, and chaplets were donated and divided between farmers on the outer islands and Infrastructure Cook Islands. The donation is in response to the rapid decline of pearl production on the island of Manihiki and the Outer Islands, and the effect this is having on the local residents. The donation of this equipment poses a number of issues for the lagoon clean up initiative: (1) It makes the reuse of the old floats and other equipment less desirable; (2) Should all the equipment be utilized to establish new farms, it is very likely that the sustainable pearl farming limits will be well exceeded; and (3) It may lead to future abandonment of equipment if controls are not improved with a bond imposed.