The drawings for the port redevelopment
Port Manager Darwin Telemaque has said the port upgrade at the Deep Water Harbour will be completed in two-phases and will take several years to come to fruition.
The Export-Import Bank of China is expected to approve a loan for about US $200 million to finance the development.
“We have (sent) the other documents that they requested,” he said. “We expect a visit from the Exim Bank of China in short order … and at that point, they will have some further discussions, after which we move towards winding down the process in getting the project on track.”
According to Telemaque, both the local and Chinese governments have decided to execute the project in two phases, with each phase costing roughly US $96 million. The initial phase is expected to take about three and a-half years to complete and the second phase will follow a few years after the first, he added.
Originally, the port upgrade was projected to begin early this year and be completed an estimated 36 months after its start date.
Highlighting the procedures in place for getting approval for this loan, the port manager noted that the bank has put some additional requirements in place. As a result, the port has been conducting audit upgrades.
“Particularly, from our own standpoint, we haven’t had proper financials for quite some time and we are in the process of finalising all the way up to 2014 so that we can get that off to the bank,” Telemaque said. “We had to go way back to 2008, 2009 … but we have moved beyond that.”
He added, “We’ve gotten it to them. They are on their way here and we are hopefully going to have this wrapped up in short order after they visit.”
He, however, did not reveal the exact period for the anticipated visit from the Chinese bank officials.
While the rules of economics would likely indicate that the stock market volatility in China could impact the development here, Telemaque said there is no evidence of the Chinese financial situation impacting the project.
“There has been great interest from the Chinese Exim Bank to get the relevant information from us,” he said. “We have had no slowing down. They have been pressuring us.”
“From where I sit, there has been no letting up … We can speculate that there may be some impact based on the global nature of economics and finance. But with regards to what we’re doing, we haven’t seen any impact or any slowing down of the efforts to try to bring this project to fruition,” the port manager added.
(Amar Spencer OMG)