Chinese Government provides interest-free loan for acquisition of customs inspection system (Linked to Project ID#66984)

Prior to March 28, 2008, the Chinese Government provided an interest-free loan to the Government of Georgia. The signing date, maturity, and grace period of this loan are unknown. Then, on March 28, 2008, Nuctech Company Limited and Georgia's Ministry of Finance signed an equipment provision contract in Tbilisi. According to the agreement, the Government of Georgia agreed to use the proceeds from a RMB 20 million Chinese Government provided grant signed in 2006 (see Project ID#66984) and the interest-free loan to purchase a mobile container inspection system — a vehicle-mounted mobile container inspection system and 11 pieces of X-ray inspection equipment — for the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia from Nuctech Company Limited. Nuctech agreed to ship the equipment to Georgia before September 30, 2008, and assumed responsibility for its installation and commissioning. The ultimate purpose of the project was to help Georgia’s Revenue Service improve customs clearance efficiency and combat smuggling. According to August 2018 email correspondence between Georgia’s Ministry of Finance and AidData, this project reached completion status on September 1, 2008. However, the official project handover ceremony was not held until February 13, 2009.

Additional details

1. No source explicitly names the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) as the source of financing, but since MOFCOM finances the vast majority of interest-free loans, AidData has assumed it was and coded accordingly. 2. The "Commitment Year uncertain" box was checked because the exact year this loan was committed is unknown. However, since it was mentioned in a March 2008, it must have been committed by then, hence 2008 as the commitment year. 3. Since the borrowing terms of the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set the maturity to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default, per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. AidData treats the drawdown period as providing 5 years of additional grace.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

6