Chinese bank backs Malawi hotel, conference centre project

The Malawi government has secured a $90-million loan from Export & Import Bank, of the People’s Republic of China, for the construction of a five-star hotel and an international conference centre in the capital city, Lilongwe.

Finance Minister Ken Kandodo has already presented the loan Bill to the country’s Parliament, which has approved it.

“The loan will be repaid in 15 years, 
after a five-year grace period,” says Kandodo.

He says that construction of the hotel and the conference centre will start this year.

The director of buildings at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Hastings Chiudzu, reports that Chinese firm Shanghai Construction has already produced designs for the conference 
centre and the five-star hotel, and that these have been approved by the authorities.

The hotel and international conference centre project is among the projects that China pledged to finance after Malawi announced in December 2007 that it 
was ending 42 years of diplomatic 
ties with Taiwan, China’s political 
rival.


The other major project that the Chinese have pledged to finance is the construction of a national stadium, which is estimated to cost between $40-million and $60-million.

Chiudzu says the architectural compo-nent of the 40 000- to 60 000-seater stadium has been completed but that the Malawi government and the Chinese government are finalising the financial arrangements for the project.

Apart from pledging 
to finance these new projects, China also took over the financing of all the projects that were being financed by the Taiwanese, including the construction of a Parliamentary complex in Lilongwe and the construction of the $70-million Karonga–Chitipa road.