Chinese Government provides RMB 90 million grant — via ETCA — for Great Stone Industrial Park Electrification Project (Linked to Record ID#66959, ID#66961, ID#66435)

Project narrative

On September 27, 2014, the Chinese Government and the Government of Belarus signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), which committed up to RMB 150 million of grant funding for the Great Stone Industrial Park Electrification Project. Then, on March 27, 2015, the parties signed an exchange of letters regarding the Great Stone Industrial Park Electrification Project. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) ultimately committed RMB 90 million of grant funding for the project. The purpose of the project was to electrify the Great Stone Industrial Park (also known as the China-Belarus Industrial Park or Індустрыяльны парк «Вялікі камень» or Индустриальный парк «Великий камень»), which is located in the Smolevichi district between the Petrovichi reservoir and Minsk National Airport (25 km to the east of the capital city of Minsk). The project involved the construction of a 110/10 kV substation, a 110 kV double circuit line, and a 110 kV single circuit overhead line. It also involved the removal of an existing single circuit 110 kV overhead line. Then, the Chinese and Belarusian owners of the Great Stone Industrial Park independently tendered the project based on the memorandum of cooperation signed by the Chinese and Belarusian governments on December 20, 2014. They ultimately selected China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) as the contractor responsible for implementation. CMEC signed a project implementation agreement on June 1, 2015 and construction began on September 14, 2015. The project successively passed the acceptance of Belarusian state departments such as the Building Supervision Bureau, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection in September 2016. Then, on October 14, 2016, the project owner (Minsk Energy) signed a handover certificate. The project was ultimately completed on August 2, 2016.