A Chinese engineering company has signed two contracts worth more than US$100 million to build a water system in an area of Kuwait where US forces are preparing for war with Iraq.
A spokesman for the Gezhouba Group's No 4 Engineering Co said yesterday that the contracts, worth US$109 million, were its largest overseas deal and also the biggest between China and Kuwait.
Gezhouba is the name of a dam on the Yangtze River in Hubei built in the early years of communist rule. The group is a state company that operates the dam and has interests in various sectors of the economy.
In 2001, company general manager Huang Lilin read on the Internet that the Kuwaiti government was planning a new district in the north of the country and had offered a public tender for the water supply. Gezhouba submitted a bid in August last year for contracts including the construction of water tanks, reservoirs and a distribution system.
The new district is now a restricted military area in which thousands of US soldiers are training for a possible invasion of Iraq.
Mr Huang considered postponing the project until after the war but the Kuwaiti side said that under the terms of the contracts, work must begin within a month.
