Chinese Government provides RMB 117 million grant — via ETCAs — for National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#36258, #73188, #36351, #62359, #36419, and #62921)

Discussions between the Peruvian and Chinese governments about the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) Construction Project started as early as 2012. Letters of exchange funding a feasibility study were signed April 6, 2013 (as captured via Project ID#62921). Letters of exchange to construct COEN were signed on November 12, 2014 by the Chinese Minister of Commerce and the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Relations. A design contract was signed with China International Engineering Design & Consult Co., Ltd. (CIEDC) (Chinese: 中外建工程设计与顾问有限公司) on April 22, 2015. Then, on August 26, 2016, the two governments signed an execution agreement for the construction of the National Emergency Operations Center, or Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Nacional (COEN) in Chorrillos, Peru near Lima. The agreement committed RMB 117,630,000 in grant funding for the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) Construction Project. The funds were drawn from the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements (ETCAs) that were signed by the two governments on August 20, 2012 (as captured via Project ID#36258), April 6, 2013 (as captured via Project ID#62359), November 12, 2014 (as captured via Project ID#36419); September 23, 2011 (as captured via Project ID#36351); and November 23, 2009 (as captured via Project ID#73188). The purpose of the project was to construct the National Emergency Operations Center, or Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Nacional (COEN) in Chorrillos, Peru near Lima. The construction area was 3,733.29 square meters. The center consists of a room for each of the modules, administrative offices, a crisis room, press room, an inter-sectoral coordination room to facilitate communication with the police and armed forces, meeting rooms, an international conference room, amenities for personal such as a gymnasium. The project also included a mobile command center. Technical assistance was also provided through this project, including the provision of training for personnel who would work in the center and sending a technical team from China to help with the creation of the center. The COEN's purpose is to monitor, validate and provide official information on dangers, emergencies and disasters for timely decision-making. It also included an Awareness, Simulation and Training Center, for both experts and members of the general public. COEN is part of the larger National Disaster Risk Management System (Sistema Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres/SINAGERD). It is overseen by the National Institute for Civil Defense, or Instituto Nacional de Defensa (INDECI). Yanjian Group Co. was the project's contractor, and one of their subsidiaries, Yanjian Group Peru SAC also participated in project implementation. The Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) also helped with the project's implementation and the Agency of International Economic Cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce was also involved with project implementation, though the precise extent is unknown. About 90% of the project was funded by the Chinese government, with an additional 6,754,781 soles provided by INDECI on top of the grants from the ETCAs, including from INDECI’s Fund for Interventions in the Occurrence of Natural Disasters (Fondo Para Intervenciones ante la Ocurrencia de Desastres Naturales/FONDES). Construction began on May 22, 2017. In 2017, the entrance tracks and the main structure of the building were completed, along with a trench and canal on the Surco River that passes through the construction area. By the end of 2018, the reception and installation of various equipment for operations -– such as LED screens, speakers, projectors, liquid crystal displays, and splicing displays for a GIS map and disaster scenes, among other items -- was completed. Construction ended in 2019, with the official handover and unveiling ceremony taking place on July 18, 2019.

Additional details

1. The Chinese title for this project is 秘鲁国家应急指挥中心. 2. The precise amounts drawn from each ETCA for this project are unknown. The discovery of the original text of the Execution Agreement signed on August 26, 2016 would likely resolve these questions, but it has not been located thus far. The November 2014 Letters of Exchange list funding ETCAs, with initial estimates as follows: 12.5 million RMB from November 23, 2009; from 20 million RMB September 23, 2011; from 30 million RMB August 20, 2012; 20 million RMB from April 6, 2013 (see "[Decreto Supremo No. 009-2015-RE and other documents]" pages 14-19; 40). This only totals 82.5 million RMB, however, far below what later sources report (in RMB, USD, and PEN). 3. Sources from after the signing of the execution agreement list ETCAs signed in 2012, 2013, and 2014 as providing funding (see "Gracias al aporte de la cooperación China se construye moderno Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Nacional (COEN)" or "Director Ejecutivo de APCI participa en inauguración de nueva sede del COEN"). Only one ETCA was signed in each of those years (see "2005-2017 [Peru: Tratados y Documentos Internacionales]), so it is assumed those described above are the funding mechanisms. It is not unusual for the ETCAs that fund a project to change between the signing of Letters of Exchange and a later agreement (see project #56926). However, adding the funds provided by these three agreements does not have the capacity to total 117,630,000 RMB when funds to other projects are accounted for, adding up to a potential maximum of only about 87.6 million RMB based on the following: 30 million for 2012 + 20 million for 2013 (40 million - 20 million from project #56101) + at most 37.6 million RMB for 2014 (70 million - 20 million from project #56429 - 1 million from project #73529 - at least 11.4 million for project #56102). This leaves at least 30.03 million RMB unaccounted for. 4. Potential sources of remaining funding: (1) the original ETCAs mentioned in the Nov. 2014 Letters of Exchange but not in subsequent resources (September 23, 2011 and November 23, 2009) and/or (2) different ETCAs not mentioned in the Letters of Exchange. It is also possible the ETCAs that funded other projects referenced in the math above did not end up ultimately funding those projects (many are based on Letters of Exchange), though there is no evidence to suggest this. Project #73527, if actually funded by the Sept. 23, 2011 ETCA (though this is unlikely, see #73527), poses a problem for solution (1), since 12.5 million RMB from 2009 (see "[Decreto Supremo No. 009-2015-RE and other documents]" pg. 40) + 10 million from September 2011 (20 million - 10 million RMB from project #73527) only total 22.5 million RMB. 5. Numbers for the total project cost vary slightly among sources. Multiple official sources give the amount in PEN, S/. 60,187,760.00, or USD (see "NUEVA INFRAESTRUCTURA CENTRO DE OPERACIONES DE EMERGENCIA NACIONAL- COEN"; "El nuevo Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Nacional - COEN"; and "China construirá el Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Nacional en Perú"). However, the value in RMB has been chosen because the funding mechanisms are ETCAs, so the original amount granted will be in RMB, not PEN or USD. 117,630,000 RMB chosen over 120 million (as reported in "Director Ejecutivo de APCI participa en inauguración de nueva sede del COEN") because, given both numbers come from official sources, the more precise number is used. 6. Judgment call made that most straightforward reading of "Informe de Evaluación del Plan Operativo Institucional 2016 al Primer Semestre 2016" is that the funds for the feasibility study are not included in the 117,630,000 RMB number. Conversions to the value in PEN (in order to compare to S/. 60,187,760.00) do not help resolve the question, because the funds provided for the study are sufficiently small that the error due to conversion rates/inflation overshadow. 7. The November 12, 2014 letters of exchange can be accessed in their entirety via https://busquedas.elperuano.pe/normaslegales/acuerdo-entre-el-gobierno-de-la-republica-del-peru-y-el-gobi-acuerdo-entre-el-gobierno-de-peru-y-el-gobierno-de-la-republica-popu-1235745-1/

Number of official sources

19

Number of total sources

23