Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
Between its founding in April 2007 and the end of 2009, the Ningbo Branch of China Development Bank provided funds to an equipment manufacturing project involving Huawei's branch in Albania and Albanian telecommunications company Eagle Mobile (华为阿尔巴尼亚分公司Eagle mobile设备保理项目). While little is known about project implementation, Chinese and Albanian officials visited the computer room for Huawei's Eagle Mobile Company project ("华为公司在阿项目鹰移动公司") on October 30, 2009. This was likely the same project funded by the CDB, indicating the project, at the minimum, entered the implementation phase. The precise funding mechanism is unknown. It is possible a loan was provided to Huawei to support investment in, or the construction of a particular project for, Eagle Mobile. It is also possible the CDB provided an export buyers credit to Eagle Mobile (or a separate Albanian institution) to pay Huawei for project implementation. Potentially related is that, between April 17 and April 19, 2009, Huawei Technologies and Albanian telecom operator Eagle Mobile signed a USD20 million investment contract. It is also known that "Huawey [sic] Albania has set up and put in operation the IT network and telecommunications for Eagle Mobile Company".
Staff comments
Intent coded as "Mixed" due to likelihood that there is some commercial intent, given the likelihood Huawei was either the loan recipient or the loan was an export buyers credit.