Powerful surge for success

Two years ago Ren Ye was in the sunset years of his career as the clock ticked down to his retirement. He had spent more than 30 years with China's largest manufacturer of electrical transmission equipment, beginning as a hot metals technician in a switch factory, and rising to become its deputy chief engineer.

But Ren's career took an unexpected turn two years ago when the bosses of China XD Group Corporation decided to send him on a mission to pump some life back into one of its overseas operations, and within weeks, Ren, 57, had moved from Xi'an, the royal city of the Terracotta Warriors, to Egypt, land of the pharaohs.

There he works as general manager at XD-Egemac, in El-Ain El-Sokhna, 200 kilometers east of Cairo on the Gulf of Suez, and retirement now seems to be the last thing on his mind.