Chinese Government provides RMB 83.4 million grant for Chinese-Armenian Friendship School Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#41319 and #66518)

Project narrative

On November 21, 2014, the Government of Armenia and the Chinese Government signed an exchange of letters regarding the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School Construction Project. According to the Armenian Office of the President, the Chinese Government provided RMB 83.4 million of grant funding for this project. The grant proceeds were drawn from two economic and technical cooperation agreements (ETCA) that the Government of Armenia and the Chinese Government signed on December 28, 2012 (see Record ID#41319) and September 10, 2013 (see Record ID#66518). China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was the source of grant funding. The project involved the construction of a Chinese-Armenian Friendship school in the town of Kanaker and the Kanaker-Zeytun administrative district, north-east of the capital city of Yerevan. The school, which occupies an area of 14,000 square meters, has classrooms, laboratories, language study rooms, a library, computer rooms, a gymnasium, a hostel, a museum, and a cultural center. It serves grades 5 through 12 and Chinese language is a major focus of study. The school has the capacity to accomodate 405 students each year. It is first full-time secondary school in Transcaucasia with Chinese as the first foreign language. Jiangsu Nantong Sanjian Construction Group Co., Ltd. (南通三建承 or CNTC) was the contractor responsible for implementation. On June 6, 2016, a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School was held. The ceremony was attended by the Chinese Vice Premier, Zhang Gaoli, and the Armenian President, Armen Sarkissian. However, the project did not commence until March 31, 2017. It passed final MOFCOM inspection on August 2, 2018. Then, on August 22, 2018, the opening ceremony for the school was held. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and China’s Ambassador to Armenia Tian Erlong were in attendance. The school was officially commissioned on September 1, 2018.