Maputo-Katembe Bridge in Mozambique underwritten by SINOSURE

"I shall thank the Chinese people for bringing us technology and building bridges and roads for our country…" said excitedly by a local staff involved in the bridge construction, who stood beside the Maputo-Katembe Bridge in Mozambique underwritten by SINOSURE. His face was full of pride.

His English name is Victory. During the bridge construction, he had excellent performance in operating elevators, doing translation work, managing warehouses and lashing steel bars. After the bridge opened to traffic in November 2018, the sea-crossing time has been reduced from two to three hours to around ten minutes, which provided more convenient and smooth connection between downtown Maputo and Katembe. "It makes our life much more convenient than before," said Victory.

The bridge and its connection lines extend from north to south of the country, and are an integral part of the trunk route connecting South Africa, which were undertaken by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) under China Communications Construction Company Limited. 

In June 2011, CRBC and the bridge owner signed a business contract. To help Chinese-funded banks and exporters go global as a whole, SINOSURE provided a package solution of capital, technology and equipment to the bridge construction. Making use of its unique advantage as a sovereignty policy-oriented financial institution, SINOSURE offered the medium and long-term export credit insurance product to leverage the commercial loan financing of USD 680 million of the Export-Import Bank of China, which accounted for 85 percent of the total amount of business contract. The financing solution with a term of 15 years effectively solved the contradiction between the infrastructure demand and the lack of short-term foreign exchange reserve of the Mozambican government, alleviated the foreign debt pressure on it, and laid a solid foundation for the smooth progress of bridge construction.

In addition, SINOSURE guaranteed the successful payment recovery for CRBC by the customized insurance product so that the Chinese capital can both "go outside" and "come back", thus relieving the worries of the bridge builder.

During the bridge construction, SINOSURE paid close attention to its progress and the needs of all stakeholders, and actively provided support and assistance at the financing side in some critical phases like changes of design scheme, business contract and drawdown period. At present, the Maputo-Katembe Bridge with a main span of 680 meters has become a local landmark, and a representative work of the BRI construction.

In the construction period, the Chinese enterprise also laid stress on the social benefits of the project by actively assuming social responsibility. It created over 3,780 jobs for Mozambique and cultivated over 5,000 technicians like welders, lathe workers, steel benders, drivers and machine operators.

A responsible person of SINOSURE noted that, as the BRI construction becomes more concrete, the overseas projects need more refined management. SINOSURE will give full play to its policy-oriented financial functions, and work with Chinese outward investment enterprises to develop more representative projects for the BRI.