CDB provides $823.5 million loan for 20,000 Social Housing Units Project

On August 24, 2006, China Development Bank signed a $823.5 million loan agreement with the Government of Venezuela for the 20,000 Social Housing Units Project. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by the borrower to finance approximately 75% of the cost of a $1.098 billion commercial contract. PDVSA — the Venezuelan state-owned oil company — agreed to increase oil exports to China and use the proceeds from the oil export sales to facilitate loan repayment. This project involved the construction of 20,000 social housing units in the states of Barinas, Aragua y Caracas. CITIC was the contractor responsible for project implementation. The project officially commenced on August 24, 2006. However, a project implementation agreement was not signed until November 6, 2006. It is unknown whether or when the project reached completion.

Additional details

1. The China-Latin America Finance Database, which is co-produced by the Inter-American Dialogue and Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, does not capture the CDB loan that supported this project. 2. The Spanish project title is 委内瑞拉社会住房项目 or 委内瑞拉两万套社会住房项目. 3. Given that CDB agreed to provide a loan to finance 75% of the cost of the commercial contract, AidData assumes that the loan was issued in the form of a buyer's credit. This issue warrants further investigation.

Number of official sources

8

Number of total sources

12