Chinese Government provides funding for Phase 1 of the Safe City Project (Linked to Project ID#56717)

During an October 2016 meeting in Macau, China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the Prime Minister of Cape Verde identified a priority cooperation project called then ‘Safe City’ Project. Then, on July 10, 2017, the Government of Cape Verde and Huawei Technologies Co. signed an agreement in which Huawei Technologies Co. to provide technical equipment in support of Phase 1 of the the Safe City Project. The Minister of Finance of Cape Verde and the Huawei Technologies Co. also signed a cooperation agreement to provide financing for the project. The total cost of Phase 1 was $4.5 million. However, it is not entirely clear how this project was financed. Phase 1 involved the the construction of an Operational Command Center, the installation of the urban video surveillance system (including 300 video surveillance cameras), the installation of an intelligent alert system and integrated operational communication (voice, SMS and data) in the capital city of Praia. The project also established a single phone number (112) for the Operational Command Center to respond to any medical, police, or fire emergency. Its ultimate objective was to detect crimes in advance and build the government’s urban safety management and control capabilities. The Operational Command Center, officially began operations on July 24, 2018. The opening ceremony for the Center was attended by Cape Verdean Prime Minister Silva and Interior Minister Rocha. The video surveillance system is now fully operational and maintained by the National Police of Cape Verde. The system operates 24 hours a day and its is operated by 32 police officers (who work in six-hour shifts). The National Police claim that the system prevents 40-50 crimes per month. In 2018, the Chinese Government agreed to provide an RMB 92.5 million grant to the Government of Cape Verde for Phase 2 of the Safe City Project (see Project ID#56717).

Additional details

1. Two sources (Forum China and the Chinese Embassy Cape Verde) suggest that the Chinese Government funded part of the first phase of the project, but the financing details are not explicitly identified by either of these sources. It is also possible that Phase 1 was co-financed by the Chinese Government and Huawei Technologies; indeed, one Chinese Embassy source indicates that 'the first phase of the project will be jointly funded by the Cape Verdean government and enterprises.’ 2. This project is also known as the 112 Project. The Portuguese project title is Projeto Cidade Segura or Primeira Fase de Projecto de Videovigilância. The Chinese project title is 平安城市项目 or 佛得角安全城市项目第一阶段

Number of official sources

6

Number of total sources

12