Early hardship leads to joy of success

Ye Mao has a wonderfully honest expression for his company's rapidly expanding international ambitions.

The director of international business at Zhong Taiheng Investment Holdings Group admits that the company, a latecomer to project contracting in Africa, is still very much "borrowing the boat to go out to sea". But after a difficult start to its business in Africa, that approach appears to be paying off.

In 2009, one of the subsidiaries of Zhong Taiheng, Zhongtai Construction Group, won a contract to build 1,500 houses in Libya in partnership with China Gezhouba Group Corp.