Chinese Government provides grant for Foreign Service Academy Construction Project

On March 17, 2020 the Parliament of Sierra Leone ratified the proposed construction of the Sierra Leone Foreign Service Academy, financed with grant funding from the Chinese government. The school would train Sierra Leone diplomats as part of President Julius Bio's Medium Term National Development Plan.. The Foreign Service Academy is projected to have a total construction area of 4577.9 square meters, and a construction period of 15 months. China was responsible for design and survey work related to the project, procurement of equipment and materials, and discharge of technicians for construction. China Railway Seventh Group (CRSG, 中铁七局集团有限公司) was contracted. On December 21, 2020 construction on the project began with a ground-breaking ceremony. The project was handed over on January 5th, 2023, and is expected to start operations on February 1st

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the China-aided Sierra Leone Diplomatic Training Academy Project. The Chinese project title is 塞拉利昂外交培训学院项目. 2. The February 1, 2019 ETCA can be accessed in its entirety via https://www.dropbox.com/s/881kuf5ac3nxj3s/AGREEMENT%20ON%20THE%20ECONOMIC%20AND%20TECHNICAL%20COOPERATION%20BETWEEN%20THE%20GOVERNMENT%20OF%20THE%20REPUBLIC%20OF%20SIERRA%20LEONE%20AND%20THE%20GOVERNMENT%20OF%20THE%20PEOPLE%27S%20REPUBLIC%20OF%20CHINA%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0. 3. For the time being, AidData assumes that the Government of Sierra Leone fully utilized the RMB 250 grant that was issued on February 1, 2019 for the purpose of the Foreign Service Academy Construction Project. However, this issue issue warrants further investigation.

Number of official sources

16

Number of total sources

32