Chinese Government provides grant for African Union Integrated Service Center Project (Linked to Project ID#52335 and Project ID#49542)

In May 2014, the Chinese Government and the African Union Commission signed an exchange of letters, which committed grant funding for the African Union Integrated Service Center Project. The purpose of the project was the construction of a multi-story building at the African Union Commission headquarters in Addis Ababa. The building consists of 3 floors and a mezzanine with total area of 16170.74 square meters. The building includes a staff cafeteria, accreditation center, archive center, delegate/staff dining areas, African Union Commission (AUC) stores, exhibition hall, printing center, main storage room, equipment rooms, underground tunnel, underground courtyard, landscape water pool, entrance squares, and parking area. Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group [安徽省外经建设（集团）有限] was the contractor responsible for implementation. Construction began on September 8, 2016 and a formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 28, 2016. The main building structure was successfully completed on April 19, 2017 and a ‘main structure topping out’ ceremony took place on April 25, 2017. Construction ended around the end of 2018 (100 days ahead of schedule). A formal project handover ceremony took place on January 4, 2019.

Additional details

1: The Chinese project title is 建的非洲联盟总部综合​服务中心项目. 2: The monetary value of the grant that supported the African Union Integrated Service Center Project is unknown. However, it is known that the Chinese Government pledged to provide RMB 600 million of additional funding for upgrades and maintenance of the AU headquarters in 2012 (see http://rs.chineseembassy.org/chn/xwdt/t899580.htm and http://roll.sohu.com/20120130/n333134871.shtml and http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0524/c83083-21597500.html and Project ID#30226). Part of the RMB 600 million pledge was apparently fulfilled through the provision of an RMB 237 million grant for the African Union Conference Center and Office Complex Upgrading Project (captured in Project ID#52335). It is unclear if the remainder of the pledge (RMB 363 million) was allocated to this project. This issue requires further investigation.

Number of official sources

16

Number of total sources

21