China’s highest ranking female politician, Madame Liu Yandong, arrived in Antigua on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and other senior government officials.
The Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) reported that she is accompanied by six ministers and vice ministers from the Chinese government.
The visitors paid a courtesy call on Governor General Dame Louise Lake-Tack on Friday and also had discussions with Spencer. They will sign bilateral agreements, which Ambassador David Shoul said will relate to the recently announced financing for a new airport terminal, and the donation of several computers to the Ministry of Education.
In the Throne Speech in December, Lake-Tack reported that the government of Antigua and Barbuda and the government of China, through the Ministry of Tourism, have signed off on a preliminary schematic design on the construction of a new airport terminal for Antigua and Barbuda.
“This project will cost approximately US$45 million, to be funded by the EXIM Bank of the People’s Republic of China. The terms of the arrangement consist of a 30 percent interest free grant and a 70 percent concessionary loan at 2 percent interest, with a five year moratorium. Construction will commence in the first half of 2011,” she said.
