Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On March 26 and March 29, 2010, the Chinese Ambassador to Togo, Yang Min, and the Togolese Minister of Cooperation, Development and Territorial Rehabilitation signed an exchange of letters related to China's assistance to the National Assembly Building Construction Project. Then, on March 6, 2014, both governments signed an exchange of letters regarding the National Assembly Building Construction Project (captured by this project) and the Ministerial Complex Construction Project (captured by Record ID#65064). China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was the source of grant funding for this project and it reportedly committed RMB 113,200,000 in total. The Government of Togo provided an additional CFA 5,224,018,000 francs to the cover the full cost of the CFA 16.6 billion franc project. This project involved the construction of a 22 meter-high building for the National Assembly (Parliament) in a new administrative district (Lomé-2) in the northern part of the city of Lomé. More specifically, it involved the construction of a building that covered an area of 10,781 square meters. The building featured 175 offices, a plenary room with a capacity of 266 seats, a 90-seat meeting room and a 50-seat meeting room, 10 parliamentary committee rooms, an infirmary, and a cafeteria. It also involved the construction of a 300-vehicle parking lot and the installation of public lighting, fire, water supply, drinking water, rainwater evacuation, and wastewater systems. 427 (mostly Togolese) jobs were created through the implementation of this project. Jiangsu Nantong No.3 Construction Group Co., Ltd. was the contractor responsible for the implementation of the project. Construction on the building began on July 20, 2016. Work on the building was planned to be completed by the end of April 2018. The project was 89.13% complete in March 2018. Work was completed in April 2018. The building was officially handed over to the Togolese authorities on June 14, 2018, in a ceremony attended by the President of Togo Faure Gnassingbé, the Prime Minister of Togo Komi Sélom Klassou, and the President of the National Assembly of Togo Dama Dramani.
Staff comments
The French project title is La construction du nouveau palais de l’Assemblée Nationale or Le nouveau siège du parlement togolais or La construction du nouveau Palais de l’Assemblée national. The Chinese project title is 多哥议会大厦项目. No source says that the funds from China came from MOFCOM; however, AidData has assumed so because grants are capitalized by the government’s fiscal revenue. Additionally, it is unclear which year the Chinese grant money was secured, as multiple letters of exchange were signed. AidData has elected to code "2010" as the commitment year, as that is the earliest known date of any legal commitment, and check the "Year uncertain" box.