Chinese Government donates equipment worth $4.78 million for Public Security Video Surveillance System Project

In July 2017, the Chinese Government and the Government of Uruguay began negotiations on a possible donation of video surveillance equipment. Then, in April 2018, the Chinese Government and the Government of Uruguay’s Ministry of Interior signed an exchange of notes regarding a donation of video surveillance equipment in support of the Public Security Video Surveillance System Project. The monetary value of the donation from China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was $4,780,000. The donation of 4000 pieces of equipment included 1,900 fixed video surveillance cameras and 200 dome (PTZ) units with aimable cameras (built by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.), ethernet switches, video wall controllers, video management servers, and network equipment. The equipment was intended for use by the Government of Uruguay to more effectively monitor and control its borders between Argentina and Brazil. The equipment was earmarked for installation in 374 sites across the Rivera, Artigas, Cerro Largo and Rocha departments. Each department has its own Monitoring Center and the video surveillance system enables real-time monitoring of imagery from a Unified Command Center in Montevideo. The donated equipment arrived in Uruguay in January 2019 and an equipment handover ceremony was held on February 28, 2019. Equipment installation activities began in December 2018 and they were originally expected to reach completion in September 2019.

Additional details

1. The Chinese project title is 乌视频监控设备项目. The Spanish project title is Donación para el fortalecimiento del sistema de videovigilancia de seguridad pública. 2. One official source identifies the monetary value of the grant commitment as $4,530,000 rather than $4,780,000. 3. Huawei's 3000 series VCN platform is Linux operating system-based equipment with up to 40 hard drives, redundant power supply, and 99.999% online time reliability. It is reportedly an extremely flexible and complete software platform, specially designed for safe cities, allowing it to operate in stacks and clusters, anticipating expansions. These are extremely robust cameras to be used on public roads and with intelligent analytics. The devices to be installed also have protection against corrosion and electrical discharges.

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

17