Facing Facts
Monbasa-Nairobi SGR provides employments for local people SUN RUIBO
ChinAfrica: Do you think Chinese enterprises are “giving fish” or “teaching how to fish”? Zhu Weidong: Most of the Chinese enterprises in Africa I visited have developed training programs for local people. This has boosted the transfer of skills to local technicians and increased their job opportunities. For example, during the construction of the MombasaNairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya, China Road and Bridge Corp. (CRBC) trained more than 18,000 Kenyan workers. In addition, it has also teamed up with the local railway authority, a local training school and China’s Southwest Jiaotong University, and trained 10 Kenyan teachers and 100 students on railway operations in the first term. A China-Kenya railway training institute will be built to provide training for around 3,000 Kenyan railway technicians.
To address the problem of the lack of technicians in the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway project, more than 36,000 local workers have been trained by Chinese enterprises. The training has not only addressed the needs of human resource during railway construction, but also cultivated technicians for railway maintenance and operation in the future.
Huajian International Shoe City (Ethiopia) Plc., a private Chinese shoe-manufacturing company in Ethiopia, has also paid attention to training local people. The company set up a special class for new staff, with experienced teachers providing training and guidance. It also provides excellent local workers with training opportunities in China. A group of local staff members have been promoted to senior positions after they received training in China.
How about local people’s employment? Can Chinese enterprises help in this regard?
It is reported in some Western media that Chinese enterprises have brought their own workers to Africa and did not hire Africans, which took away local job opportunities. This argument is groundless. In fact, many Chinese enterprises attach great importance to the localization of their businesses. They have recruited a large number of local people, and some local employees have been promoted to supervisors and managers after being trained.
Dr. Deborah Brautigam, Director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said this kind of claim was “rumor,” and she noted that the majority of the staff workers recruited in Chinese enterprises are locals. She expressed this view in her article titled Five Myths about Chinese Investment in Africa published in Foreign Policy in December 2015.
During my visit to the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR project, I found that this project had created a total of 42,000 jobs of various kinds by the end of 2016. CRBC has recruited more than 8,900 Kenyan technicians and more than 8,700 local management staff. The local staff employment rate reached as high as 92 percent. 
Zhu WeidongLocal workers have been recruited not only by China’s state-owned enterprises, but also private companies. For instance, the majority of the workers at Huajian have been recruited locally. So far, a total of over 6,000 local people have been provided job opportunities. It is constructing Huajian International Light Industry Park in Ethiopia, which will bring in clothing, shoes and hats, electronics and other light industrial manufacturing companies. It’s estimated that 30,000 to 50,000 jobs will be created for locals in Ethiopia when it reaches completion in 2020.
Chinese enterprises are criticized for not protecting the local environment while operating businesses in Africa. What’s your take on this?
Let the facts speak. Take the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR for example, CRBC has made regulations and construction plans to protect the environment and wild animals. Based on the requirements from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Chinese enterprise has built bridges for the train to pass wildlife reserves without affecting animals. A total of 969 bridge culverts and 14 wildlife passages have been built to allow animals passage. Sections of the bridges running through national parks have also been elevated as high as 7 meters to enhance movement of wildlife such as giraffes. The rail line is also fenced on both sides along the track to prevent animals straying into the path of trains.
The Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway passes through Ethiopia’s Awash National Park. Strict controls have been put in place to ensure the project does not harm wildlife species. For instance, in the sections of the track built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp., two culverts are built for every kilometer along the track, and thus a total of over 750 culverts have been built along the 430-km rail line.
Some foreign scholars have also made objective evaluations on environmental protection issues of Chinese companies in Africa after thorough research and investigations. For example, Canadian scholars Namukale Chintu and Peter J. Williamson refuted some Western media’s claims that Chinese enterprises have damaged the environment in Africa in their published article titled Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa: Myths and Realities. In this article, they mentioned some environmental protection cases carried out by Chinese enterprises in Africa. For example, China National Petroleum Corp. has built the world’s largest biodegradable wastewater treatment facility in Sudan to eliminate the discharge of effluents. The Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank also have made their own environmental and social responsibility policies, to encourage Chinese enterprises to conduct strict environmental management in Africa.
How have Chinese enterprises fulfilled their CSR in Africa?
CSR requires enterprises to care about not only corporate profits and shareholders’ interests, but also the interests of local communities and stakeholders. Instead of only focusing on making profits as reported by some Western media, most Chinese enterprises do fulfill their CRS in Africa.
Chinese contractors of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR and the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway have done a good job in fulfilling their CSR in Africa. For example, since the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR project started, CRBC has organized over 260 activities for public welfare, benefiting a total of over 20,000 Kenyans. The activities include drilling wells for local residents, donation to schools, conducting road rescue, constructing roads for local communities, and participation in environmental protection.
At present, backward infrastructure, shortage of funds and professionals are the main bottlenecks which hinder Africa’s development. Many Chinese enterprises have considered addressing these bottlenecks as their priorities when running projects in Africa.
Afrobarometer, an influential pan-African, non-partisan research network, released findings from Round Six surveys (2014-15) in October 2016, which have been conducted among almost 54,000 citizens in 36 African countries. Survey results show that China is the second most popular model for national development after the United States. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of Africans say China’s influence is positive. The most important factors contributing to a positive image of China in Africa are China’s investments in infrastructure and other development projects, the cost of Chinese products and China’s business investments, according to survey respondents.
There is no doubt that some Chinese enterprises sought immediate interests without complying with local laws. Rather than fulfilling their CSR, they damaged the local environment, bringing discontent and resentment from locals. The Chinese Government is taking measures to deal with such enterprises. A few such enterprises cannot represent the mainstream of Chinese enterprises operating in Africa.
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