Eximbank Supports Congo (Kinshasa) Telecom ProjectThe China Export and Import Bank (Eximbank) signed an agreement Thursday, December 14, with the Ministry of Finance of Congo (Kinshasa) on a concessional loan of 80 million yuan Renminbi.The loan will be used to support a telecommunications joint-venture between China's ZTE Corporation and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Congo (Kinshasa). A spokesman for Eximbank said that the joint-venture, titled Congo-China Telecom S.A.R.L, will be based in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, and will manage Congo's domestic telecommunications businesses including mobile telecommunications, long-distance calls and international exchange. The budget for the project is 164 million yuan RMB, he said. ZTE Corporation is China's State-owned shareholding company, whose telecommunications equipment garners some 30 percent of the telecommunications capacity in the Chinese market, and it has a number of large telecommunications projects in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Libya and other countries. ZTE Corporation holds 51 percent of the shares in the Congo project, with a cooperating term of 30 years. In 1997 the two governments signed a framework agreement on the concessional loans, according to which the Eximbank will provide 200 million yuan in concessional loans for the Congo government. The spokesman said that so far Eximbank has provided financing services for 72 projects in 36 developing countries. |
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