Chinese Government provides grant for Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences Renovation and Reconstruction Project

On January 16, 2014, Yemen’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and China’s Ambassador to Yemen signed an exchange of letters, committing funds for the Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences Renovation and Reconstruction Project. The purpose of this project was to build a new campus in Bani Al Hareth District (in the northern suburbs of the capital city of Sana’a) for the Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences (المعهد اليمني الصيني). This school was originally constructed with Chinese Government assistance in the 1960s and established in 1970. The Chinese Government refers to it as China’s ‘first foreign-aided secondary technical school’. On February 25, 2014, China’s Economic and Commercial Counselor, the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Vocational Education of Yemen, and the Dean of the Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences visited the project site. Then, on April 21, 2014, a team of 9 technical experts from China arrived in Yemen on to conduct a one-month-long, on-site project feasibility study. The Chinese and Yemeni governments signed another agreement regarding the Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences Renovation and Reconstruction Project on June 16, 2014. However, the contents fo this agreement are unknown. On March 2, 2015, China’s Ambassador to Yemen met with Yemen’s Deputy Minister of Vocational Education Numman and the Dean of the Yemeni-Chinese Institute for Applied and Technical Sciences to discuss the project. However, no further updates on the progress of this project could be identified after March 2, 2015.

Additional details

The Chinese project title is 萨那技校 or 中也技校项目 or 萨那技校 or 萨那也中科技学院新建和改造项目. The Arabic project title is مشروع المعهد المهني الجديد بمنطقة بني الحارث or المعهد اليمني الصيني للعلوم التقنية والتطبيقية. China’s Ministry of Commerce refers to this project as China-aided. AidData assumes for the time being that the project is support by a grant rather than an interest-free loan. However, this issue merits further investigation.

Number of official sources

11

Number of total sources

20