Chinese Government cancels $74.8 million of Government of Guinea’s outstanding debt obligations

Project narrative

On August 28, 2001, the Chinese Government and the Government of Guinea signed a debt exemption protocol agreement (中华人民共和国政府和几内亚共和国政府关于免除几内亚政府债务的议定书). Under the terms of this agreement, the Chinese Government agreed to cancel the Government of Guinea’s outstanding debt obligations related to 8 interest-free loans. The Government of Guinea contracted these loans between 1962 and 1992 and all of the loans matured on or before December 31, 1999. The value of these outstanding debt obligations was RMB 60 million (approximately $31,138,884.64), GBP 13,229,856.64 (approximately $21,432,367.75) and $22,310,525.37. Therefore, the aggregate value of these outstanding debt obligations was approximately $74,881,777.76. The exempted repayment obligations include: (1) an interest-free loan worth 22,500,000 rubles (or $20,310,525.37) that was contracted on September 13, 1960 (2) an interest-free loan worth GBP 9,333,600 that was contracted on November 16, 1966 (3) an interest-free trade loan worth GBP 1,750,050 that was contracted on November 16, 1966 (4) an interest-free loan worth GBP 120,900 that was contracted on August 26, 1968, for a cultural project (5) an interest-free trade loan worth GBP 2,100,000 that was contracted on February 28, 1969 (6) an interest-free loan worth RMB 50 million (converted to $29,325,513.2 at the average annual exchange rate of RMB and US dollars when the repayment period first began) that was contracted on October 9, 1969 (7) an interest-free loan worth RMB 10 million (converted to $1,813,371.44 at the average annual exchange rate of RMB and US dollars when the repayment period first began) that was contracted on October 9, 1969 (8) an interest-free $2 million loan contracted on November 27, 1992