Construction work on a new primary school at Baie Ste Anne on Praslin is expected to start by the middle of next year, it was announced this week.

The project will be funded by a US$4.7 million (R28 million) loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development.

The agreement for the loan was signed in Vienna, Austria in Ausgust by the principal secretary for Finance, Mr Francis Chang-Leng and the chairman of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund, Dr Salen Al' Omair. 

The loan is being made available to the government at concessional rates, with an annual interest rate of 4% over 20 years and a five-year grace period.

As a result of these conditions, Mr Chang-Leng said, the loan would not have an adverse impact on the measures of the Macro-Economic Reform Programme (Merp).

"The loan will not aggravate our current foreign exchange shortage because it allows us a five-year grace period and hopefully by the time we start paying, given the measures being implemented, the economic situation would have improved," Mr Chang-Leng said.  

With the loan, Mr Chang-Leng added, the construction of the school was being fully-funded, which meant that government would not have to source for extra funding, for instance, from the Central Bank.

This, he said, was in line with the measures being implemented to reduce domestic capital expenditure.

Giving details about the project, Mr Yves Choppy from the Ministry of Education and Youth, said the new school would comprise two storeys and would be constructed on the newly reclaimed land near the Baie Ste Anne jetty.

He said the new school, which will be up to date with similar standards as other primary schools on Mahe, will also have a crèche and additional facilities like a school meal centre to cater for all the schools on Praslin and a centre for people with disabilities.

The project will be put on tender early next year.

It will be recalled that the loan for the project was approved earlier this year following negotiations initiated in 2002 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

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