Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — The authorities have cleared the way for reviving several stalled school projects by reaching a settlement with the defaulting Chinese contractor and handing over the projects to a government-owned company.
Minister of Education Ahmed Al-Isa announced Sunday night that the measures of the handover the stalled projects to the Tatweer Company for Buildings received the royal approval.
Tatweer is a subsidiary of the Education Development Holding Company owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Al-Isa expressed thanks and appreciation to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for their generous care and support to the education sector.
The minister said completion of the stalled projects started by the Chinese contractor would help reduce the crowding of classrooms in existing schools, do away with rented schools and build new schools in many districts.
The school projects were abandoned a long time ago and residents of project locations were worried about the negative impact they would have on the security and environment of their neighborhoods.
Reassuring the disgruntled residents of the districts, Al-Isa said he had issued directives to Tatweer to secure all the sites immediately.
He said assigning the projects to Tatweer comes within the public-private partnership program to construct school buildings in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The PPP initiative will end the problem of stalled projects, the minister said. “The number of government schools capable of accommodating a large number of students will increase. This will create a model education environment conducive to learning and hence improve the quality of school output,” Al-Isa said.
He said the school projects were awarded to the Chinese company when the Ministry of Education started implementing an agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and China for implementing several government projects in the country.
This followed a Council of Ministers decision issued on April 17, 2006, that approved the plan to seek the help of Chinese companies to carry out projects approved in the state budget.
The Education Ministry attributed the failure to carry out the projects to problems within the Chinese company, leading to the suspension of work in the project sites.
The ministry started taking practical steps to find a solution to revive the stalled projects awarded to the Chinese company. Royal directives were issued to form a committee comprising representatives of several government agencies to resolve the problem.
The committee recommended resolving the issue by withdrawing the contracts awarded to the Chinese company and inviting tenders to complete the stalled projects.
Al-Isa said in order to withdraw the projects from the Chinese company, the ministry had to follow certain mechanisms due to the nature of the contract. More time was needed to reach an understanding with the pertinent authorities in the Kingdom and China, he added.
This led to the suspension of work until royal directives were issued to cancel the contracts and reach a settlement with the Chinese company, the minister explained.
