[Cancelled] Chinese Government provides a RMB 100 million grant — via an ETCA — for three new container scanners and the improvement of two older scanners

Project narrative

On September 15, 2017, representatives of the Chinese and Costa Rican governments signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) granting RMB 100 million, to exclusively be applied to three new container scanners and the improvement of two older scanners. Costa Rica formally rejected the donation through a letter sent to the Chinese Embassy on July 7, 2018, and the project was cancelled. This follows when, in November 2014, the Costa Rican Foreign Minister made a request to the Chinese government for such a donation. In July 2016, a team of Chinese diplomats visited Costa Rica to evaluate where the country could use improved entry control. From the assessment, China recommended that the Costa Rican State Phytosanitary Service acquire equipment manufactured by the company NUTECH - specifically, model MB1215HS - and update their existing MT1213 LT equipment. Since Costa Rica did not renew their 2008 contract, a new project and contract was proposed. On August 29, 2017, the Chinese Embassy in Costa Rica met and reported that new equipment was under construction and would arrive in Costa Rica in December 2017. This equipment was to be incorporated into the wider national project of Non-Intrusive Inspection, and the total donation, including the covering of operating costs by NUTECH, was estimated to be about $18.99 million USD. However, on May 7, 2018, the Costa Rican Administration of Livestock and Agriculture declined the donation of three container inspection devices and updates to the two previous mobile inspection devices. This decision to decline the donation was made based on a technical report on the donation produced by a working group appointed by the National Trade Facilitation Council (CONAFAC). In 2008, Costa Rica received a donation of two mobile inspection devices from China but never put them into daily operation after they were found to be ineffective (see Record ID#54734).