Chinese Government provides RMB 40 million interest-free loan — via ETCA — for unspecified purpose

On October 20, 2005, the Chinese Government and the Government of Equatorial Guinea signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ECTA), which committed an RMB 40 million interest-free loan for unspecified purposes. According to the Autonomous Fund for Amortization of Public Debt (Caja Autónoma de Amortización de la Deuda Pública) within Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Finance and Budget, this loan had disbursed RMB 40 million as of December 31, 2019. The borrower had not made any principal or interest repayments as of December 31, 2019.

Additional details

1. Since the borrowing terms of the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set maturity period to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity period of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. 2. The proceeds of this loan may have been used to support the Bata Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office Building Construction Project (captured via Project ID#62476). This issue warrants further investigation. 3. This MOFCOM interest-free loan is not included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020.

Number of official sources

2

Number of total sources

2