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01-06-2012 09:29 Belarus
Belarus gets China to overhaul Minsk Airport for $600m
MINSK, - PRIME-TASS. Belarus has made a final agreement with China’s National Precision Machinery Export & Import Corporation to carry out an overhaul of Minsk Airport for $600 million, Belarus’ Vice Premier Anatoli Kalinin told reporters Thursday.
The project provides for building a second runway, the reconstruction of the existing terminal and the construction of a new one. The project will be implemented in association with China National Precision Machinery Export & Import Corporation. An agreement has been reached that the price for the three components of the project will not exceed $600 million, Kalinin said.
As a result of negotiations, a new subcontractor company will be chosen to produce the design of the project.
One of the conditions put forward by Belarus is that the existing terminal should be fully reconstructed before the start of the world ice hockey championship ‘2014, Kalinin said.
Although they are supposed to start building a second runway, the construction will not be ready for the championship, but will be commissioned by December 2014, Kalinin said.
As previously reported, Belarus opted not to take out a Chinese credit for a large-scale investment project at Minsk Airport. Originally, they planned to build a second runway and an international passenger terminal at Airport Minsk. Airport Director General Dmitry Melikyan made a statement to that effect in early April. “We had an investment project with China, however the parties disagreed about the price, which was twice as high as Belarus was ready to pay,” Melikyan said.
After numerous negotiations China would refuse to fulfill the general contract and approached the government with a proposal to sign a new contract for the delivery of equipment only.
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