Chinese Government provides RMB 80 million grant for One-Stop Investment Service Building Construction Project

On May 24, 2004, the Chinese Government and the Government of Egypt signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), which committed RMB 80 million (approximately $10 million) of grant funding for the One-Stop Investment Service Building Construction Project.

Then, on May 9, 2006, the two governments signed letters of exchange, which fully allocated the grant proceeds from the ETCA to the One-Stop Investment Service Building Construction Project (“中国援助埃及苏伊士运河经济区一站式投资服务大楼立项换文”).

This project involved the construction of a one-stop investment building in the northwestern part of the Suez Economic Zone. The building is 8 stories tall and 16,808 square meters in size. The total cost of its construction was $19,809,424.58 (RMB 137,000,000). China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) was the contractor responsible for implementation.

On June 8, 2006, the Foreign Assistance Project Bid Board of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) discussed issuing a tender to CSCEC for the One-Stop Investment Service Building Construction Project.

Then, on June 19, 2006, during a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that his government would provide a $10 million grant for the One-Stop Investment Service Building Construction Project.

During the same month, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Egyptian Prime Minister Nazif attended an inauguration ceremony for the project.

Then, on February 11, 2007, the Egyptian Prime Minister, Ahmed Nazif, and the Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Wu Sike, laid the foundation for the building at a groundbreaking ceremony. However, construction did not begin until November 20, 2008.

The project was originally scheduled for completion on May 20, 2010 and it achieved completion slightly ahead of schedule. Construction was completed on May 15, 2010 and the project passed a final MOFCOM inspection on June 18, 2010. An official project handover ceremony took place on April 27, 2013.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil and the Egyptian Minister of Planning and Cooperation were in attendance