Help wanted: Talented Africans

China and others can help with education, health improvements and reversal of brain drain

The low-quality labor force has become a major issue of Africa's development, and this issue affects China in multiple aspects.

China and Africa have formed a comprehensive partnership, with Africa being one of China's major destinations of overseas investments and aid projects. Well-qualified labor is crucial for Chinese enterprises to achieve sustainable development in Africa.

Existing collaborative mechanisms, such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China-Africa Development Fund, have boosted China-Africa economic relations and, under the strategic initiatives, more and more investment will flow into the continent.

To achieve sustainable development, Chinese companies need to hire local talent, but here is the problem: It is hard to find employees capable of being managers, even among skilled workers. This is a headache not only for Chinese companies on the continent, but also for Western companies there. Shipping Chinese staff to Africa could alleviate the problem, but the cost is high and it doesn't create jobs in the local community, which is not sustainable.

Research has shown a causal relationship between general health conditions and the quality of the labor force. Generally, people's health and nutritional well-being are the building blocks for education, and good health conditions can help drive economic growth.

Before the 2000s, in general, the health of Africa's population was much lower than the international average. Several important indexes such as infant death rate, death rate and life expectancy were at low levels. Malnutrition and bad healthcare facilities also affected the population. This, fundamentally, affects the overall quality of the African labor force.

The Chinese government can help change this situation by continuing to send medical teams to Africa, providing medicines, improving medical facilities and training medical staff. China can also help African countries build public health emergency response mechanisms so they can stop incipient epidemics on time.

In the long term, such efforts will contribute to the improvement of labor force quality.

Currently, a dearth of talented professionals and specialists in science and technology has become a big hurdle for Africa's economic development. Several factors cause this: insufficient investment in education, few training programs for the labor force, and the outflow of gifted students and workers to more developed areas.

Although Africa has a bounty of human resources, it has a severe shortage of high-level talent that can contribute to its industrialization. In 2013, a global talent survey report shows that the most needed talent in southern Africa is among engineers and technicians, as well as specialists in finance and accounting. But even now in universities there are very few science-related majors.

There is also a serious shortage of talent in agriculture. A large number of people are engaged in agricultural production in Africa, but they have inadequate scientific knowledge and technology in this area, so the yield is very low.

The outflow of talent to other continents further exacerbates the problem. Statistics from international organizations show that Africa has lost a third of its educated people to other continents, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

To improve the quality of the labor force, first of all, Chinese companies in Africa should assume their corporate social responsibility to employ and train more local workers so they can learn from their work. If they perform well, they can be given management positions.

Meanwhile, by offering relatively good compensation, Chinese companies can attract high-level local workers and Africans currently working overseas. And most importantly, Chinese companies should constantly expand their business and create more jobs for local workers.

The Chinese government has set up an African Human Resources Development Fund to train African talent, and in the future, the organization will continue to train promising workers in the areas most in demand.

The Chinese government should continue to work with African governments to exchange students and provide government scholarships. The Chinese government should also set up more educational projects to help build disciplines that are not yet established in many African universities or vocational schools.

African governments should try raising their educational budgets to improve schools, while allocating the money rationally.

As many African countries have just begun to develop, governments should put more resources into basic education and technical training. During this process, Chinese companies and other organizations can design technical training sessions and establish demonstration projects for African countries.

As the world economy gets increasingly interdependent, Africa's development affects areas beyond its borders. Whether Africa can achieve sustainable development will instill confidence in the world economy.

Under these circumstances, international organizations such as the United Nations and the African Union should help improve the educational levels in Africa and attract talent from outside Africa.

One possible way is to establish a "talent return project" in Africa, targeting high-level African talent working outside the continent. International organizations can create large-scale research projects to attract this talent to return to their home countries, or to relocate to other African countries.

Providing educational and research infrastructure is equally important. International organizations should help Africa build more national libraries, schools, hospitals and agricultural technology institutes to help support courses and training.

Zhang Jianping is director of international economic cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission. Wei Xin is a graduate student at Peking University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/13/2015 page10)