Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On June 8, 2020, the Municipality of Rosario received a donation of PPE worth RMB 187,340 from the Municipality of Shanghai to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19). The donation was to be delivered to the Rosario Municipal Ministry of Public Health and subsequently distributed to healthcare professionals in the area. More specifically, the donation consisted of 3,000 N95 masks, 300 Jihua model medical protective suits, and 20,000 Medicom surgical masks. The government of Shanghai also paid the expenses of transporting the material from China to Buenos Aires, the cost of which was included in the RMB 187,340. The Rosario Municipal Government began the procedure to request the donation in April 2020. The municipal government also reported that the Office of Foreign Affairs of Shanghai, the Chinese Embassy in Argentina, the Argentine Consulate in Shanghai, the Argentine Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the White Helmets Commission, and the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (Anmat) all participated in making the donation occur and managing the supplies.
Staff comments
1. The Catholic University of Chile's Asian Studies Center estimated the donation's value at USD 18,500, and the Buenos Aires Government resolution identifies the materials' value as USD 12,585. However, AidData has coded the transaction amount as the number provided by the Rosario Municipal Government source insofar as (1) it is an official source, (2) it likely includes the transport costs that were covered by the Shanghai Municipal Government, and (3) it provides the donation value in RMB. It therefore likely provides a more accurate estimate for the donation's total value, rather than just the value of the supplies themselves. 2. A very similar donation project has been captured via Record ID#94679. On May 4, 2020, a resolution from the Buenos Aires Municipal Government accepted a donation that included 3,000 N95 masks, 300 Jihua model medical protective suits, and 20,000 Medicom surgical masks, donated by the Government of Shanghai. Given the extremely similar nature of the donation (the materials, brands, amounts, timing between Rosario beginning the process and arrival, same donor), it is possible that this acceptance by Buenos Aires is a procedural step of some kind - insofar as the donation to Rosario would have arrived in Buenos Aires originally - and the resolution is referring to the same donation that eventually went to Rosario. At the same time, there is additional evidence that these are separate donations, catalogued in Record ID#94679. This issue warrants further investigation. 3. Rosario and Shanghai have been sister cities since 1997.