China forgives 289.208 million RMB in debt from Tanzania (Linked to Project #85121, #85122)

On 17 July 2001, Chinese and Tanzanian government officials signed a protocol in which China would exempt Tanzania from repayment obligations for 15 interest-free loans that had matured on 31 December 1999. According to Chinese official news outlets, the total value of debt cancellation was equal to 289.208 million RMB (Project #85123), $19.2 million USD (see Project #85122), and 1.275 million GBP (See Project #85121). The attached PKU Law source describes 9 out of 15 of those loans, so there are 6 unspecified loans included in this debt cancellation agreement. Seven loans are all denominated in RMB and when added together equal 284.828 million RMB. If the media reporting is correct, that means about 2.3 million RMB ($277,876 in 2001 USD) is not accounted for. Two loans are denominated in GBP and when added together equal 1.5 million GBP. This actually exceeds the 1.275 million GBP figure reported in Chinese media. PKU Law did not report any USD-denominated loans, so the majority of the six unidentified loans forgiven in this 2001 protocol are likely in USD. Based on all of the aforementioned information, there is approximately $36,571,957.13 USD in Chinese interest-free loans forgiven for Tanzania on 17 July 2001.

Additional details

1. Because there are 6 unspecified loans, AidData relies on the aggregate figures reported by Chinese news outlets. 2. RMB discrepancy calculations: 289.208 million RMB (from Chinese news outlets) - 284.828 million (sum of projects) = roughly 2.3 million RMB. 3. The loans forgiven through this action were interest-free loans committed through previous ETCAs signed by the two governments. As such, the loans likely had maturity lengths of 20 years and since they had reached maturity by 1999, they were necessarily contracted prior to 2000. Therefore, AidData has not assigned this record to the umbrella category (as there is little risk of double counting the monetary value of the debts that were forgiven).

Number of official sources

1

Number of total sources

5