China announces US $5.7 million grant for reconstruction

China has announced a grant of three billion francs CFA (US $5.7 million) to the Republic of Congo for the rebuilding of the country's infrastructure, damaged during repeated civil wars during the past decade, the Congolese government reported on Thursday from the capital, Brazzaville. "We exchanged ideas on Chinese-Congolese cooperation. A technical team [from China] is currently in Brazzaville to evaluate renovation work needed for the national parliament," a communique from the Congolese government quoted Chinese ambassador Wo Ruidi as having said. It added that Chinese experts were also in the middle of a project to provide water to outlying areas of Brazzaville, through the construction of boreholes. The Chinese-built Palais du Parlement was badly damaged during fighting in June 1997. The contribution follows another of 1.5 billion francs CFA ($2.8 million) in January 2003 which supported construction of the Alphonse Massamba-Debat athletics centre, a radio station in Djoue, the radio and television centre of PK 13, and the foreign affairs building, the Congolese government reported. Brazzaville recalled that its cooperation with China dated to 1964, four years after Congo's independence from France.