Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On April 7, 2020, the Municipal Government of Chongqing handed over a donation of medical supplies to the Embassy of Ecuador in Beijing. The supplies were intended to be sent to Ecuador shortly after the handover to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic and included 1000 protective suits, 1000 surgical gowns, and 5400 N95 masks. As of April 30, 2020, the Ecuador Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the supplies were still in the Ecuadorian Embassy's warehouses. The supplies were shipped to Ecuador from the Tianjin port in China on May 28, 2020, alongside donations from PetroChina International Company Limited (CNPC), and the Chinese People’s Friendship Association with Foreign Countries (captured via Projects #94856 and #94857 respectively). The Ecuador - China Chamber of Commerce also helped with donation logistics, particularly those related to customs.
Staff comments
1. Given the amount of time between the original handover to the Ecuadorian Embassy in China (April 7) and the reported shipment to Ecuador (May 28), there may be multiple donations from the Chongqing Municipal Government. However, (1) there is a lack of other evidence about an additional donation from the Chongqing Municipal Government to the Ecuadorian Embassy as an intermediary. (2) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs article published on April 30 reports donations received by the Ecuadorian Embassy in Beijing had not yet arrived in Ecuador, albeit not the donation from Chongqing by name. As a result, it is assumed there was simply a delay in transporting the supplies from Beijing to Ecuador, and the materials donated on April 7th are the same shipped from Tianjin Port on May 28th. 2. Given the evidence that the materials were shipped to Ecuador on May 28th, it has been assumed that the project was completed. May 31st has been added as the estimated completion date; this is the date the article from Ecuador's Foreign Ministry that discusses the shipment of the donations was published, and there is no indication in the article that the materials arrived prior to the article's publication. AidData has estimated the transaction amount for this donation based on price catalogues from the World Health Organization (WHO). Please see the TUFF Methodology for additional details.