Louta Town Government contributes to first batch of medical supplies donated to Argentina in March 2020 (linked to #91387)

On March 17, 2020 – at a meeting between the Chinese Ambassador to Argentina, Zou Xiaoli, and the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández – the Chinese Embassy committed a batch of supplies to the Argentine Government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The supplies were to be granted by a group of organizations consisting primarily of Chinese government institutions and state-owned enterprises. The entire batch included the following supplies: 5,000 sets of protective clothing, 66,000 N95 masks, 130,000 medical masks, 2,000 goggles, 5,000 isolation suits, 20,000 pairs of gloves, 2,500 reagents (tests), 550 hand-held forehead thermometers, and 3 sets of temperature monitoring equipment. The group of donors included the following organizations: the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government; the Xiaoshan District People's Government; the People's Government of Louta Town, (in the Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou Municipality); the China Shenzhen Mammoth Foundation; the BGI Group; the Chinese Embassy in Argentina; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Argentina Branch; Bank of China, Buenos Aires Branch; COFCO Argentina Branch; China Communications Group, Argentina Branch; National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm); Huawei Argentina; Gold Wind Technology, Argentina Branch; and the Argentina-China Trade and Investment Promotion Association. The materials granted by each donor arrived on different dates. On March 27, 2020, the materials donated by the Hangzhou Municipal Government, the Xiaoshan District Government, and the Louta Town Government arrived in Buenos Aires and were handed over to officials from the Argentine Ministry of Health. The Chinese Embassy in Argentina reported that these three donors provided the "main part" of the supplies included in the first batch and were worth "more than 1 million RMB." However, the precise amount donated by the Louta Town Government is unknown. For the time being, AidData estimates their contribution was worth about USD 6285.36, or, in terms of supplies, about 3,200 N95 masks, 395 isolation suits, 3,700 pairs of gloves, and 90 thermometers.

Additional details

1. For the donors that are listed as contributors to this first batch of materials but provided an unknown number of supplies, AidData has applied the equal contribution assumption. The amount that can be directly attributed to a particular donor has been subtracted out from the total, and the value of the remaining supplies has been divided equally between the remaining donors. Five total donors had an unknown contribution: Louta Town Government (#93424), China Communications Group Argentina (#93457), Sinopharm (#91463), Goldwind Technology Argentina (less than 50% Chinese state ownership, no project created), and Argentina-China Trade & Investment Promotion Association (includes an unknown mix of private/state-owned enterprises, AidData does not currently track financing from these types of organizations as projects). Therefore, the unaccounted for supplies' value has been divided by five. 2. Although the majority of the donation is said to have been provided by the Hangzhou Municipal Government, the Xiaoshan District Government, and the Louta Town Government, there is no non-arbitrary mechanism to decide how to increase the estimated contribution for Louta Town. Thus, the equal contribution assumption has still been applied for consistency. However, this does indicate that the number of supplies donated by China Communications Group in this project may be inflated to some extent, as will the estimates listed for Sinopharm, Goldwind Technology Argentina, and Argentina-China Trade & Investment Promotion Association. 3. The calculations for the portion of the donation provided by the Louta Town Government are as follows: 5,000 sets of protective clothing - 3,500 donated by ICBC Argentina (#93425) - 1,500 donated by Bank of China Buenos Aires (# 93427) = 0 sets of protective clothing 66,000 N95 masks - 50,000 N95 masks donated by Hangzhou Municipal Government (#93423) = 16,000 N95 masks 130,000 medical masks - 60,000 donated by Xiaoshan District Government (#93456) - 105,000 donated by Hangzhou Municipal Government (#93423) = -35,000 surgical masks. While this issue warrants further investigation, all other surgical mask donations are set to zero for the time being. 2,000 goggles - 2,000 goggles donated by Hangzhou Municipal Government (#93423) = 0 goggles 5,000 isolation suits - 1754 donated by Xiaoshan District Government (#93456) - 1275 donated by COFCO Argentina (#93455) = 1,971 isolation suits 20,000 pairs of gloves - 1,500 donated by Xiaoshan District Government (#93456) = 18,500 pairs of gloves 2,500 testing reagents - 1000 donated by the Mammoth Foundation - 500 donated by the Chinese Embassy (#69295) - 1000 donated by Hangzhou Municipal Government (#93423) = 0 testing reagents 550 hand-held thermometers - 100 donated by Xiaoshan District Government (#93456) = 450 thermometers 3 sets of thermal imaging equipment - 3 donated by Huawei (#93422) = 0 sets of thermal imaging equipment In total, 16,000 N95 masks, 1,971 isolation suits, 18,500 gloves, and 450 thermometers are unaccounted for. AidData estimates these remaining supplies are worth USD 31,426.80 based on price catalogues from the World Health Organization (Please see the TUFF Methodology for additional details). This total has been divided by the number of donors whose contributions are unknown (five) under the assumption that each made an equal contribution. Thus, the value of the Louta Town Government's estimated contribution is USD 6285.36. ($31,426.80 / 5 = 6285.36)

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

5