Shanghai Construction Group receives a TT$1.1 Billion contract to design build and finance new central block of Port-of-Spain General Hospital

On May 13, 2019, Shanghai Construction Group Caribbean Limited (SCG Limited), an overseas subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group, was awarded a TT$1.1 Billion contract for the construction of a new central block at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The agreement was signed by representatives of SCG and the Trinidadian government in a ceremony at the Diplomatic Center, St Anns. The contract established a public-private partnership (PPP) and a design-build-finance arrangement for the project, where Shanghai Construction Group was to source all the financing for the project and be repaid overtime by leasing the building to the Trinidadian Government. Once the full loan value had been repaid to SCG, the company was to transfer full ownership of the building over to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. The contract comes after the central building of Port of Spain General Hospital was declared seismically unsafe in 2009. No effort to refurbish the building was made until a magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the island in August 2018, putting a dangerous crack in the roof of the hospital and requiring the transfer of all current patients. The new state-of-the-art, 540-bed facility will include Accident and Emergency services, an operating theatre and recovery room, Intensive Care Unit, High Dependency Unit and ancillary services. The project was expected to be completed in two phases – the first being demolition of the old block, which began in September 2018 following the earthquake. The second phase will include the construction of the new block, which is estimated to take 24-30 months to complete. A sod-turning ceremony was held on November 19, 2019. Then, in November 2021, according to several media reports, Shanghai Construction Group issued a termination notice of its contract with UDeCOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago Limited). The erection of steelwork halted shortly afterwards in November 2021, as the contract termination took effect on November 19, 2021. UDeCOTT stated that several meetings were held with the contractor in an attempt to resolve the issues and proceed with the project, however, on April 8, 2022, SCG issued a letter confirming its step down from the project. SCG cited staff and logistical issues it faced procuring materials due to supply chain shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as lack of payment since October 2020. UDeCOTT will now take over construction and expects to complete the project by mid-2024.

Additional details

According to Source ID #154006, prior to SCG's contract termination they had already completed the foundation and ground floor slab. Therefore, it is unclear whether the project is partially tied to Chinese financing.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

12