ZCZC
BCN-08
SLEONE-ECONOMY-AVIATION-AIRPORT-CHINA
Sierra Leone scraps project for Chinese-built airport
FREETOWN, Oct 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sierra Leone on Wednesday scrapped a
$400-million (347-million-euro) scheme for a Chinese-built airport, saying
the scheme was too costly.
In a statement, the ministry of transport and aviation said that “after
serious consideration and due diligence,” the government had determined the
Mamamah International Airport initiative was “uneconomical”.
All contracts under the project are being terminated, it said.
Sierra Leone’s previous president, Ernest Bai Koroma, signed a loan
agreement with China for the airport shortly before elections in March that
his party lost.
His successor, Julius Maada Bio, vowed to stop the scheme.
He also lashed Chinese infrastructure projects generally as “a sham” that
brought the impoverished West African state scant economic benefit.
The scheme entailed building a new airport around 50 kilometres (30 miles)
outside the capital of Freetown.
It would be completed in 2022 and managed and maintained by the Chinese.
But critics questioned the benefit, given that Freetown’s existing
airport, Lungi, is operating below capacity.
The government on Wednesday said it was looking into the possibility of
building a bridge between Freetown and Lungi airport — a scheme that has
been priced at more than $1 billion.
The airport and another major Chinese project, a toll road, shouldered
their way into Sierra Leone’s presidential election in March.
Several candidates declared the schemes were unaffordable and should be
scrapped or reviewed.
Bio went furthest, going on record as saying “most of the Chinese
infrastructural projects in Sierra Leone are a sham with no economic and
development benefits to the people.”
China has provided infrastructure and development aid to Africa since the
Cold War.
But its interest and presence in the continent have grown exponentially in
the past two decades, in parallel with its emergence as a global economic
giant.
China overtook the United States in 2009 as Africa’s biggest trading
partner.
Chinese loans, meanwhile, have soared, especially in transport and energy
infrastructure.
Some analysts have warned of a debt trap as some of the world’s poorest
states struggle to repay their borrowings.
Between 2000 and 2017, China’s government, banks and contractors lent
African countries $143 billion, according to the China-Africa Research
Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
BSS/AFP/HR/1035