Harare — The government is seeking US$145 million from China for the construction of a new parliament building, Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said.

Biti told the parliamentary portfolio committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion last week that negotiations for the funding of the state-of-the-art building to be located in the historic Kopje area of Harare are already underway.

"Negotiations are underway to secure concessionary funding of US$145 million from the China Eximbank to finance the construction of the new Parliament building," Biti told legislators.

"The transport and communications sectors are set to benefit US$825 million under the concessionary Chinese Eximbank facilities for telecommunications, roads rehabilitation and roads construction equipment and Victoria Falls airport upgrading."

In December 2007, an official in the then Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry told the State media that government had appointed a Chinese company Nantong International to oversee the project and allocated Z$10 trillion for the project.

The government had earlier in January of the same year also allocated Z$8 billion towards the same project.

All the funds, however, lost value under the weight of hyperinflation.

In April 2007, the Property Gazette reported that construction of the new building was controversially awarded to Pantic Architects, a Yugoslav company based in Harare, which is working with Studio Arts, a local company owned by Joel Biggie Matiza -- ZANU-PF's Murehwa South House of Assembly member.

Plans for the construction of a new Parliament have been on the cards for close to 25 years now.

In 1985, Mick Pearce, a renowned Zimbabwean architect, won the prize for the design of the building and that design is still being kept at the current Parliament building.

The architect has also designed other imposing structures in the country: the Eastgate Complex in Harare, Chinhoyi General hospital and the Land Management Building for Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe. Internationally, Pearce, who was born in Harare, educated in South Africa and trained in London, has also designed the University of Zambia's students residence, Zambia's Milk Processing factory and the CH2 municipal offices in Melbourne, Australia, among others. In 2003, the architect won the coveted Prince Claus Award for his work.