Private domestic companies making a greater economic impact in region

Private companies in China are focusing more on cooperation with Africa and hope to achieve win-win results, experts said.

Their role in promoting African development and Sino-African friendships has grown in recent years and can be seen in diverse fields.

Huajian Group, based in South China's Guangdong province, has built nine modern shoemaking production lines in Ethiopia that can make and export 3 million pairs of women's shoes annually. Huajian's branch in the country has created 7,500 jobs locally.

King Deer, which processes cashmere, from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has set up five factories in Madagascar and invested $35 million. It employs nearly 6,300 local people.

In the financial cooperation field, the China-Africa Development Fund based in Beijing has invested more than $4 billion in Africa and promoted Chinese companies and banks to invest and loan $17 billion. They have invested in 88 projects in 37 African countries, involving fields such as infrastructure, processing and manufacturing, benefited more than 1 million local people.

The fund has promoted Chinese well-developed industries such as automobiles, electric appliances, machinery and cement to invest in Africa. Backed by the fund, about 11,000 medium and heavy trucks, 300,000 air conditioners, 450,000 refrigerators, 560,000 televisions and 1.6 million metric tons of cement produced by Chinese companies enter the African market annually.

As for trade and investment help, Qingjian Group based in Qingdao in East China has established exhibition and sales centers for Chinese commodities in countries such as Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire. It wants to develop Qingdao's overseas merchandising flagship stores and has signed cooperation agreements with companies including Tsingtao Brewery.

The private companies' development in Africa has promoted industrialization and urbanization and helped local young people to improve their skills, insiders said.

Companies in Hunan have also played a role. Among them is Broad Homes Industrial International, based in Changsha. It is promoting construction of a real estate project in Rwanda with local governments, construction and development companies as well as thirdparty financial institutions.

Rwanda became a main destination for Broad Homes to enter the African market and take part in the Belt and Road Initiative. Based on local needs, the company formulated an integrated solution involving finance, design, construction, production, development and sales for the real estate project.

Liu Dong, director of operations at Broad Homes, said fabrication technologies and products are an innovation for the design standards and even the whole construction industry in Africa.

He added it can not only reduce the construction duration, but also solve the problem of lack in labor.

Contact the writers at songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/28/2019 page24)