POWERCHINA inaugurates SE Africa regional HQ

POWERCHINA held an inauguration ceremony for its Eastern and Southern Africa regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya on March 8.

Kenya's National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa and POWERCHINA Vice President Wang Bin attended the ceremony and delivered speeches.

The ceremony brought together more than 100 Chinese and foreign participants: Song Dongsheng, general manager of POWERCHINA International Group; Guo Ce, the economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya; representatives from the Chinese ministries of transport and energy, financial institutions (such as Export and Import Bank of China and China Export & Credit Insurance Corp, media organizations (including Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television), and POWERCHINA member enterprises.

Inaugural ceremony

The ceremony was hosted by Liang Jun, deputy general manager of POWERCHINA International and general manager of Eastern and Southern Africa regional headquarters

POWERCHINA has built many landmark projects in eastern and southern Africa and made remarkable achievements, helping boost China-Africa cooperation as well as economic growth of the countries in the region, Wang said in his speech.

Kenya, the largest economy in east Africa and plays a crucial role for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, Wang said. Centering on Kenya, POWERCHINA will strive to become a leader in infrastructure construction in eastern and southern Africa, a participator in promoting social development, and a witness to China-Africa cooperation and friendship, he said.

Rotich said POWERCHINA is one of the leading companies of the Belt and Road Initiative as well as a world-famous contractor. Choosing Nairobi as the home to its Eastern and Southern Africa regional headquarters showed the company has confidence in the growth of Kenya and the friendship between the two countries. He added that projects undertaken by it boosted local development and deepened the China-Kenya friendship. The Kenyan government will give full support to cooperation with China in economic and trade fields as a contribution to the country's economic growth.

POWERCHINA Vice President Wang Bin answers reporters' questions.

Liu congratulated POWERCHINA on the launch of the new regional headquarters. The ambassador said economic and trade cooperation between China and Kenya expanded gradually in 2016, with steady progress made on many key projects in energy and road construction. China has become Kenya's largest trading partner, financing source and project contractor, and Chinese investment in Kenya has also been on the rise year by year, taking the first position in Africa.

Under the background of all-round development of bilateral ties, new opportunities have emerged for the two countries' economic and trade cooperation, Liu said.

Currently, China and Kenya are actively implementing the 10 major cooperation initiatives proposed by leaders of both countries, and a good number of major projects are being pushed forward in an orderly fashion. Economic and trade cooperation will be further deepened and expanded to cover more fields, Liu said.

In particular, Liu praised POWERCHINA for its achievements made in Kenya, hailing it as an active participator in implementing the Belt and Road Initiative. POWERCHINA honored its social responsibility in Kenya through undertaking a variety of infrastructure construction projects that brought noticeable economic and social benefits, and made active contributions to Africa's development as well as the improvement of local people's living conditions, Liu said.

Representatives and guests to the ceremony pose for a group photo.

He expressed the hope that POWERCHINA will further integrate resources, accelerate transformation and upgrading, seize important opportunities in cooperation, improve management of its international business and contribute more to the local economy, as well as cooperation between the two countries.

The eastern and southern Africa office is one of the six regional headquarters POWERCHINA plans to set up worldwide. Its business will cover 26 countries in eastern and southern Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. As an important measure designed to restructure the group's international business, these regional headquarters will further accelerate POWERCHINA’s localization and globalization process.