The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Chinese government is determining how much money it will contribute to repairing the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

Chinese Ambassador Dai Qingli said the Bahamas government provided China with a proposal last August that indicated the project would cost $30m.

 “China is committed to renovating this stadium and we are sorry to see that the stadium is not in a perfect state because of lack of maintenance for the past seven, eight years, and for various other reasons,” she said at the House of Assembly yesterday.

 “So we are very keen to work with the Bahamas government to fully renovate the stadium and to present a new and world-class facility for the Bahamian people.”

 Ambassador Dai Qingli said after the Bahamian team placed second and won 17 medals at this year’s CARIFTA Games, the Chinese government is committed to ensuring the stadium is adequately maintained.

 “We have received the project proposal from the Bahamas government in August last year.

“And in that proposal, they propose the certain scale of funding that is needed. And we are now in China. We’re now going through the process of looking at the scale of the project and looking at the funding that is necessary,” she said.

 “So this process is still ongoing. So, the scale of work, the scope of work and also the funding scale will be determined as we progress with the approval procedures.”

 China gifted the Bahamas the 190,000 square ft. stadium in 2011, signalling the growing bilateral relations between the two countries.

Yesterday, Ambassador Dai Qingli presented the House of Assembly with six 65-inch television sets.