The preferential loan will be used to install an additional 64 MW at the Ranomafana hydropower plant in the south-east of the island.
In the presence of her counterpart, Solo Andriamanampisoa, Minister of Energy and Hydrocarbons, Yvette Sylla, Madagascar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Zhang Wei, Chargé d’Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Antananarivo, signed a framework agreement on Tuesday for the disbursement of $240 million.
The funds will be used to increase by 64 MW the production capacity of the Ranomafana hydropower plant, which supplies Antananarivo, the country’s capital.
It “contributes to the implementation of the President’s Velirano 2 (Water and Energy Access Programme) and once again demonstrates China’s support for Madagascar’s sustainable economic and social development,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the Chinese diplomat, this is “the largest financial cooperation project in the history of cooperation between the two countries and one of the largest Chinese financial projects in Africa.”
Finally, the two parties hailed the sincerity, pragmatism and dynamism of the relations that has lasted between the two countries for fifty years.
ID/lb/as/APA