Chinese Government provides RMB 200 million grant for Sino-Vietnamese Friendship Palace Construction Project (Linked to #85377)

On November 30, 2009, the Chinese Government and the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) signed letters of exchange committing RMB 200 million of grant funding for the Sino-Vietnamese Friendship Palace Construction Project. The grant proceeds were drawn from four different Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements (ETCAs) that the two governments previously signed, including one that committed RMB 50 million on October 7, 2004. Then, on September 12, 2016, the Chinese Government and the Government of Vietnam signed a supplementary grant agreement for the Sino-Vietnamese Friendship Palace Construction Project worth RMB 129.5 million (see Project #85377). The purpose of the project was to construct a Sino-Vietnamese Friendship Palace in the capital city of Hanoi. The building occupies an area of about 3.3 hectares and it has a total construction area of about 14,000 m2 with 2 floors above the ground and 1 underground floor, including a hall of 1,500 seats, conference rooms, offices, and space for Chinese traditional medicine clinics. The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) and Yunnan Construction Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. were jointly responsible for project implementation. A formal foundation stone laying ceremony took place on October 9, 2004. Then, a formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 8, 2013. However, construction did not begin until December 10, 2014. On July 14, 2017, an unspecified supplemental agreement was signed by VUFO and Yunnan Construction Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd.. The project sponsor — China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) — conducted a final project inspection on October 18, 2017. The building was officially inaugurated on November 12, 2017 and a formal project handover ceremony took place on November 21, 2018. The originally scheduled project completion date was October 31, 2017.

Additional details

This project is also known as the Viet-Sino Friendship Palace Construction Project. The Vietnamese project title is dự án Cung văn hóa Hữu nghị Việt – Trung or Dự án Cung hữu nghị Việt Trung or Cung Hữu Nghị Việt Trung. The Chinese project title is 越中友谊宫项目 or 越南越中友谊宫项目 or 援越南越中友谊宫项目. The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) is the standing agency of the Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs (COMINGO). VUFO is a nation-wide socio-political organization whose main function is to establish and promote friendly and co-operative people-to-people relations between Vietnam and other countries.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

18