Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko has announced that China will build a new football stadium and competition-grade swimming pool in Minsk at its own expense, BelarusFeed has reported.
According to the Belarusian president, China will spend 180 million US dollars on the project. The stadium will have a capacity of 33,000 and will be built near the existing Tractor Stadium in the east of Minsk.
Referring to his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi JinPing earlier this year, Mr Lukashenko said that the construction of the two facilities would start in 2020 and would be completed by 2023.
“I stress that the construction of such sports facilities in Minsk in the context of cooperation between Belarus and China is unprecedented and should be an example for other projects in the future,” the Belarusian president told the press, adding that the facilities should be built as soon as possible, “so that we [Belarus], after receiving free money, do not red tape the Chinese.”
He added that Belarus had also approached other countries regarding finance for the project.
The Chinese offer to build the stadium and the pool comes after the country recently provided Belarus with economic assistance and loans worth 300 million US dollars.
