Chinese finance and expertise is helping Zanzibar create greater capacity for flights

The Export-Import Bank of China is in the final stages of providing a loan for expansion of the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar, Tanzania's semi-automonous island.

The concessional loan is 50 percent of the total required to bankroll the construction of the apron area of airport, where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled or boarded.

The apron area, once completed, is expected to enable the airport to handle bigger aircraft, more cargo and a greater number of passengers, especially tourists visiting the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Exim Bank is expected to send three financial experts to Zanzibar next month ahead of issuing a loan to the government of Zanzibar for completion of the project. The experts will assess the project and finalize procedures for the construction.

"We expect that the completion of the project will considerably boost the air transportation sector in the isles," says Chinese Consul General in Zanzibar Xie Xiaolong.

He says that all projects being supported by his country will be completed in the near future.

The impending loan follows a request by Zanzibar's Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Idd, during his official tour of China in December last year.

According to Idd, completion of a new apron at Terminal Two is expected to take eight months.

"It is important to the economy of Zanzibar, as it will increase the terminal capacity and boost revenue receipts," he says.

In 2013, the Chinese government gave a 30-year, $73.9 million preferential loan to the government of Zanzibar for expansion work at the airport, which is on Pemba Island.

The work, including expansion of the runway, a 17,000 square meter terminal, a small power station and a bigger apron, is currently being carried out by Beijing Construction Engineering Group. The project had begun in February 2011 and is scheduled to be completed before the end of 2015.

The implementing agency for the project is Beijing Construction Engineering Group. This project was arranged at the same time as a loan for the Tanzanian National Information and Communication Technology Broadband Backbone Network Project.

The project was discussed in the Zanzibar House of Representatives in August 2013, where legislators Mbaroul Wadi Mussa and Hamza Hassan Juma expressed concern over the delays in construction work at the airport.

The delays were caused by a need to improve the design, which prompted an increase in construction costs from $57.5 million to $70.4 million.

The project was supported by the World Bank.

Abeid Aman Karume International Airport is the major airport serving the Zanzibar Archipelago. The airport is served daily by most major Southern African airlines, as well as longhaul flights.

President Xi Jinping, during his visit to Tanzania in 2013, pledged to support major projects in Tanzania, including Zanzibar.

Among the projects were the construction of the new Maruhub Harbor on Zanzibar's main island, the expansion of the airport and the improvement of water facilities and services through nonconditional loans from the Chinese government.

Zanzibar is also a beneficiary of three major projects from 16 agreements signed between Tanzania and China, which include economic and technical cooperation, the rehabilitation and upgrading of Abdulla Mzee Hospital in Pemba and two scanners provided by China for container inspection at Zanzibar Port.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/21/2017 page27)