São Tomé and Príncipe | China negotiations for port construction are ‘advanced’

Negotiations with China for the construction of a “multipurpose” commercial port in São Tomé and Príncipe “are at a very advanced stage,” São Tomé’s Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Osvaldo d’Abreu said.

“It is a project that is being analyzed with Chinese cooperation and with some Chinese companies,” said the minister, adding that the negotiations also involve some multilateral partners, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

D’Abreu also said that the future “multipurpose” port, which will have fishing and commercial facilities, is an “infrastructure adapted to the realities of the archipelago and its commercial positioning in this sub-region of Central Africa.”

The China Road & Bridge Corporation (CBRC) and Macau Legend Development Ltd expressed interest last year in taking part in a project to build a deep-water port in Fernão Dias, in the Lobata district, north of São Tomé, which is where the multipurpose port project announced by the minister will now be located.

This announcement comes just over a week after the government of São Tomé and Príncipe asked the IMF to send a new mission to discuss a financial aid program under the Extended Credit Facility.

In July 2018 the World Bank issued a document stating that São Tomé and Príncipe needed to spend about USD35 million to modernize the port of São Tomé to allow it to moor cargo ships and other regional services. MDT/Macauhub