Chinese Embassy donates RMB 1.43 million for the Bazaar Labrin Redevelopment Project

On December 19, 2019, during the visit of a Chinese delegation led by State Councilor Wang Yong to Seychelles and as part of a trade agreement between China and Seychelles, the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles provided a RMB 1.43 million ($203,524 USD; Rs.2,795,310 SCR) cash donation to the Enterprise Seychelles Agency (ESA) for Bazaar Labrin Redevelopment Project The purpose of this donation was to allow ESA to construct 35 vendor kiosks and other facilities at Bazar Labrin, a market located in Beau Vallon of North Mahé, where food and other local products are sold weekly. The project was expected to improve the hygiene and general facility of Bazar Labrin. ESA had difficulty securing financing to implement the project until the Chinese donation. Bazar Labrin was planned to close in December 2019 and re-open as a permanent bazaar after the planned completion of construction in mid-2020. However, in February 2020, the redevelopment of Bazar Larbrin was reassigned to Société Seychelloise d'Investissement (SSI), an investment vehicle of the Seychellois Government; the funding given to ESA for the redevelopment of the site (including the Chinese donation) was set to be diverted to other projects developed by ESA for Seychellois entrepreneurs, such as the redevelopment of the beach park in Anse Royale and a project involving an ex-playground.

Additional details

1. As this donation was later diverted to other, unset purposes, but the donation was kept by ESA, AidData has coded the project_status field as "Completion" because all Chinese financing was disbursed and set the actual_implementation_start_date and actual_completion_date as December 19, 2019, the day the cash donation was handed over to ESA.

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

6