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Officials deny airport rumours
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OFFICIALS in South China's Zhuhai City have denied reports that the city's airport would be shut down due to escalating financial woes and that the municipal government could be sued for failing to settle huge debts arising from its investment in the project.
In a report published in yesterday's newspapers, an official from the municipal government of the special economic zone bordering Macao said it was impossible for the six-billion-yuan (US$720m) airport to be closed although he admitted the airport has failed to repay debts to its builders.
Feng Zhaoming, chairman of the airport, was quoted by the report as saying the Central Government would not approve the airport being shut down.
He painted a rosy picture for the airport, saying cargo services, air shows, auto shows and other proposed activities would save the newly built airport from bankruptcy.
The unidentified municipal official said the city has managed to repay more than 38 million yuan, out of the 70 million in total, to a major debtor in Tianjin, a builder of the airport. He said the municipal government has offered to repay the
outstanding debts with shares in the airport rather than cash. The shares would become redeemable once the airport turns a profit.
A senior official from a Guangzhou court went to Zhuhai on May 29 to try to force the airport's management to honour a court order last July that required the airport to immediately repay the 40 million yuan owed to the Tianjin construction firm. On May 22, a Zhuhai court ordered a freeze on all income derived from the airport's operation.
Newspapers have disclosed that the Zhuhai Municipal Government had total debts of 1.7 billion yuan.
Once hailed by Zhuhai officials as a major accomplishment of the municipal government, the airport, the only one in China built with local investment, has achieved only about four per cent of the passenger capacity it was designed to handle.
(Lin Min)
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