China's Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) has won a bid to build an international cargo hub and airport in Bolivia's eastern department of Santa Cruz, the Bolivian news agency ABI reported Wednesday.
The airport is to be constructed in the city of Viru Viru at a cost of 300 million U.S. dollars to be financed by China's import-export bank Eximbank.
The BUCG beat four other Chinese state-run firms competing in the international bidding and will sign the contract on Friday, said Bolivia's Deputy Minister of Transport Pascual Guarachi.
In March, Minister of Public Works Milton Claros told media that Bolivia offered "the most viable regional, technical and financial option for the construction of an intercontinental cargo hub," the ABI reported.
Two similar airports are currently serving the South American region: one in Lima, Peru and the other in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and their traffic and freight volumes have "surpassed their capacity," said Claros.
Award-winning BUCG built China's National Stadium, best known as the Bird's Nest, which hosted the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
