China Eximbank provides $84 million loan for Les Saras-Mvou Section of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville Road (RN1) Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#60219, ID#68874, ID#72780, 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 in 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 in 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

7

Number of total sources

9