CuMasks 1/3 : (Hong Kong) More Nepotism surrounding the manufacturing of CuMasks: Vice Chairman of the Esquel Group also chairs HKRITA. An affiliate company of PRC based non-woven fabric textile manufacturer Action Medical Sundries Ltd. received extra government subsidiaries for production of disposable masks
Summary: this is a highlight of the potential or actual conflicts of interests involved two more disclosed manufacturers of the controversial Cu masks and the background of the two companies.
Hong Kong government awarded several hundred millions of public government contracts for the CuMask manufacturing without open bidding process. The coordinating entity The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) provided piecemeal information in recent days. There are four material suppliers being chosen to support production of the six layered CuMasks. Ms Teresa Yang, the chairwoman of HKRITA is one of the suppliers that are awarded for the government contracts. She is the vice chairman of Esquel Group. An affiliate company of Action Medical Sundries Ltd (supplier of the non-woven fabric for the production of the CuMask) had previously received $5 million government subsidy for the surgical masks production.
The Permanent Secretary of the Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB), Ms Annie Choi could not ease public concerns relating to conflicts of interests between the suppliers and HKRITA when being questioned by media at last Friday’s press conference. She told the media that all the suppliers were not based in Hong Kong but provided the raw materials to Hong Kong during the pandemic. She was worried that might upset their local governments if Hong Kong government disclosed their identities. They signed the non-disclosure agreements with the government. “I also wanted to discuss the situation but this was a bit difficult for me if the disclosure would affect them.”
Yet, on the next day HKRITA indicated that they had obtained consent from the raw materials suppliers to disclose their identities for addressing media’s questions. HKRITA emphasises that there are specific technological requirements attached to five types of raw materials for the production of the copper masks. They identified a list of exclusive suppliers that could satisfy all these requirements in February. They are:
• Action Medical Sundries Ltd (note: PRC based factory, manufacturer of non-woven fabrics)
• Argaman Technologies Ltd. (note: Israel based company, patent owner of Cotton X technology involving injection of cotton particles with bio-inhibitive to fabric. The fabric supplied by Argamon Technologies is currently mainly for chemotherapy patients at hospitals.)
• Esquel Group (note: HK based textile and apparel manufacturer)
• Y and K Textiles Ltd (note: Importer and exporter of woven and non-woven fabrics from South Korea to Europe, SE Asian countries, HK, and India.)
Source: HKCNews
#CopperMask #HKRITA #EsquelGroup #ActionMedicalSundriesLtd #Coronavirus
Summary: this is a highlight of the potential or actual conflicts of interests involved two more disclosed manufacturers of the controversial Cu masks and the background of the two companies.
Hong Kong government awarded several hundred millions of public government contracts for the CuMask manufacturing without open bidding process. The coordinating entity The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) provided piecemeal information in recent days. There are four material suppliers being chosen to support production of the six layered CuMasks. Ms Teresa Yang, the chairwoman of HKRITA is one of the suppliers that are awarded for the government contracts. She is the vice chairman of Esquel Group. An affiliate company of Action Medical Sundries Ltd (supplier of the non-woven fabric for the production of the CuMask) had previously received $5 million government subsidy for the surgical masks production.
The Permanent Secretary of the Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB), Ms Annie Choi could not ease public concerns relating to conflicts of interests between the suppliers and HKRITA when being questioned by media at last Friday’s press conference. She told the media that all the suppliers were not based in Hong Kong but provided the raw materials to Hong Kong during the pandemic. She was worried that might upset their local governments if Hong Kong government disclosed their identities. They signed the non-disclosure agreements with the government. “I also wanted to discuss the situation but this was a bit difficult for me if the disclosure would affect them.”
Yet, on the next day HKRITA indicated that they had obtained consent from the raw materials suppliers to disclose their identities for addressing media’s questions. HKRITA emphasises that there are specific technological requirements attached to five types of raw materials for the production of the copper masks. They identified a list of exclusive suppliers that could satisfy all these requirements in February. They are:
• Action Medical Sundries Ltd (note: PRC based factory, manufacturer of non-woven fabrics)
• Argaman Technologies Ltd. (note: Israel based company, patent owner of Cotton X technology involving injection of cotton particles with bio-inhibitive to fabric. The fabric supplied by Argamon Technologies is currently mainly for chemotherapy patients at hospitals.)
• Esquel Group (note: HK based textile and apparel manufacturer)
• Y and K Textiles Ltd (note: Importer and exporter of woven and non-woven fabrics from South Korea to Europe, SE Asian countries, HK, and India.)
Source: HKCNews
#CopperMask #HKRITA #EsquelGroup #ActionMedicalSundriesLtd #Coronavirus
Cu Masks 2/3: Background of the raw materials suppliers
Editorial note: the award of contracts to these two companies raises concerns that the HK-CCP government may have tried to benefit Beijing and Sai Wan’s vested interests in Hong Kong by using public money as political gifts to appease them.
Esquel Group
Ms Teresa Yang, the vice chairman of the group and chairlady of HKRITA claims that she ‘does not’ have any conflicts of interests because she obtains approval from ITB before purchasing the gauze attachment fabric for the CuMasks from Esquel Group and that she had disclosed her conflicts of interests with the board of directors. Esquel Group will charge the raw materials for the production of CuMasks at cost. Estimated amount is $3.8 million for 450,000 yards of fabrics.
Esquel group was formed by Shanghai textile merchant Yang Yuanlong in 1978. Their production facilities are in Mainland China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The current chairman is Marjorie Yang. Yang nominated Ms Carrie Lam-Cheng to run for Chief Executive Election in 2017. He was appointed to the Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers on Innovation and Strategic Development in the following year. Teresa Yang is the sister of Majorie Yang and current holding dual executive directorship positions at HKRITA and Esquel Group. She is also a member of the Committee on professional developments of teachers and principals under the Education Bureau.
Action Medical Sundries Ltd (ACM)
ACM has factories in Shenzhen and Nanchang. It specialises in manufacturing of SS non-woven fabric, SMS non-woven fabric, melt-blown non-woven fabric, and laminated non-woven fabric (under the entity National Bridge Industrial Holdings Ltd in China.) In a nutshell, ACM specialises in manufacturing of non-woven fabrics for hospital uniforms, shopping bags, disposable PE gloves and bed sheets. According to the website of HK Trade Development Sourcing page (Chinese), the managing director of Action Medical Sundries Ltd is Yang Ziran.
Further research conducted by HKCnews revealed that another company of the same group had enlisted twice among the twenty government-subsidised production lines for local made masks under the Anti-Epidemic Fund (that involves $30 billion public funding). ACM received two grants for the respective amounts of $3million and $2 million previously.
ACM is a subsidiary of PRC based National Bridge Holdings Ltd founded in 1985. Yang is the group chairman. Apart from this, Yang also holds multiple executive leadership positions at numerous Fujian associations of societies in HK including HK Fujian Association of Societies (director), Hong Kong Fujian Charitable Education Fund (Honourable Chairman). Fujian is Xi Jin Ping’s major powerbase in China. In additional to be part of Xi’s group, Yang is also part of the Liaison Office’s close linked interests group via the current Secretary of the PRC Liaison Office Luo Huining through his membership of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Qinghai Province (the power base of Luo) and Qinghai Province related positions including Qinghai Hong Kong and Macau Association (Vice-chairman).
Source: HKCNews
#Xi #Fujian #EsquelGroup #ACM #AntiEpidemicFund #LiaisonOffice #Qinghai
Editorial note: the award of contracts to these two companies raises concerns that the HK-CCP government may have tried to benefit Beijing and Sai Wan’s vested interests in Hong Kong by using public money as political gifts to appease them.
Esquel Group
Ms Teresa Yang, the vice chairman of the group and chairlady of HKRITA claims that she ‘does not’ have any conflicts of interests because she obtains approval from ITB before purchasing the gauze attachment fabric for the CuMasks from Esquel Group and that she had disclosed her conflicts of interests with the board of directors. Esquel Group will charge the raw materials for the production of CuMasks at cost. Estimated amount is $3.8 million for 450,000 yards of fabrics.
Esquel group was formed by Shanghai textile merchant Yang Yuanlong in 1978. Their production facilities are in Mainland China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The current chairman is Marjorie Yang. Yang nominated Ms Carrie Lam-Cheng to run for Chief Executive Election in 2017. He was appointed to the Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers on Innovation and Strategic Development in the following year. Teresa Yang is the sister of Majorie Yang and current holding dual executive directorship positions at HKRITA and Esquel Group. She is also a member of the Committee on professional developments of teachers and principals under the Education Bureau.
Action Medical Sundries Ltd (ACM)
ACM has factories in Shenzhen and Nanchang. It specialises in manufacturing of SS non-woven fabric, SMS non-woven fabric, melt-blown non-woven fabric, and laminated non-woven fabric (under the entity National Bridge Industrial Holdings Ltd in China.) In a nutshell, ACM specialises in manufacturing of non-woven fabrics for hospital uniforms, shopping bags, disposable PE gloves and bed sheets. According to the website of HK Trade Development Sourcing page (Chinese), the managing director of Action Medical Sundries Ltd is Yang Ziran.
Further research conducted by HKCnews revealed that another company of the same group had enlisted twice among the twenty government-subsidised production lines for local made masks under the Anti-Epidemic Fund (that involves $30 billion public funding). ACM received two grants for the respective amounts of $3million and $2 million previously.
ACM is a subsidiary of PRC based National Bridge Holdings Ltd founded in 1985. Yang is the group chairman. Apart from this, Yang also holds multiple executive leadership positions at numerous Fujian associations of societies in HK including HK Fujian Association of Societies (director), Hong Kong Fujian Charitable Education Fund (Honourable Chairman). Fujian is Xi Jin Ping’s major powerbase in China. In additional to be part of Xi’s group, Yang is also part of the Liaison Office’s close linked interests group via the current Secretary of the PRC Liaison Office Luo Huining through his membership of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Qinghai Province (the power base of Luo) and Qinghai Province related positions including Qinghai Hong Kong and Macau Association (Vice-chairman).
Source: HKCNews
#Xi #Fujian #EsquelGroup #ACM #AntiEpidemicFund #LiaisonOffice #Qinghai