China Eximbank provides $85 million loan for Pointe Noire-Malélé Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#60219, ID#72780, ID#72781, ID#72782, ID#369)

On June 19, 2006, China Eximbank and the Republic of Congo signed a $1.6 billion loan framework agreement — also known in the Republic of Congo as the “strategic partnership” (“partenariat stratégique”) — that allowed the Republic of Congo to obtain China Eximbank loans for infrastructure projects through a securitization mechanism: Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)—the country’s state-owned oil company — agreed to deposit a portion of the cash proceeds from its oil exports into an escrow account that is controlled by China Eximbank. This framework agreement (captured via Project ID#60219) was ratified on October 26, 2006. Four of the subsidiary loans that were approved through the framework agreement supported Phase 1 of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project. They included an $85 million China Eximbank loan in 2007 for the Pointe Noire-Malélé Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (captured in Project ID#68874), an $84 million China Eximbank loan for the Malélé-Les Saras Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (captured in Project ID#72780), an $84 million China Eximbank loan in 2007 for Les Saras-Mvou Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (captured in Project ID#72781), and a $74 million China Eximbank loan in 2007 for the Mvou-Dolisie Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (captured in Project ID#72782). The estimated borrowing terms of these loans are as follows: a 0.25% interest rate, a 20-year maturity, and a 5-year grace period. The (principal) amount outstanding under these four loans was $57,483,425 as of December 31, 2019. The Pointe Noire-Malélé Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project involved the construction of a 55 km road segment that runs from Pointe-Noire to Malélé. The Malélé-Les Saras Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project involved the construction of a 37 km road segment that runs from Malélé to Les Saras. The Les Saras-Mvou Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project involved the construction of a 36 km road segment that runs from Les Saras to Mvou (Mvouti). The Mvou-Dolisie Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project involved the construction of a 45 km road segment that runs from Mvou (Mvouti) to Dolisie. China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. was the contractor responsible for all four of these road sections. Phase 1 construction began in May 2008 and was opened to traffic in December 22, 2011. Phase 2 of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project, which was also financed by China Eximbank, involved the construction of the 375 km road from Dolisie to Brazzaville. It is captured via Project ID#369. Phase 2 started construction on December 22, 2011 and was opened to traffic on March 1, 2016.

Additional details

1. Phase 1 is also known as the Pointe Noire-Dolisie (RN1) Road Construction Project. The Chinese project title is 承建的刚果（布）一号公路一期工程 or 即中建总公司1号公路. 2. According to a 2019 report published by the Republic of Congo’s National Assembly, all loans approved under the June 19, 2006 framework agreement had an interest rate of 0.25%, maturities between 13 years and 20 years, and grace periods between 3 and 5 years. Therefore, since the actual maturities and grace periods of the four loans that supported Phase 1 of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project are unknown, AidData imputes a maturity value of 16.5 years (the middle of the distribution of the maturity range) as an approximation and a grace period value of 4 years (the middle of the grace period distribution) as an approximation. 3. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it identifies a single $552 million China Eximbank loan for Phase 1 of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project. AidData records four separate China Eximbank loans — for the Pointe Noire-Malélé Section, Malélé-Les Saras Section, Les Saras-Mvou Section, and Mvou-Dolisie Section of Phase 1 of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project — that the Congolese authorities disclosed to the World Bank and the World Bank reported in its September 2014 Republic of Congo Economic Update publication.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

20