State-owned enterprises construct infrastructure to improve local lives

Cooperation between China and Africa has become deeper as State-owned enterprises continue to bring Chinese technologies, capital and management experiences to Africa, experts said.

Over the last several decades, China's State-owned companies have developed well in the African continent. Their revenue has grown gradually, which in turn helps increase the income of local people and the country's GDP.

Their business scope has expanded to a larger scope - from infrastructural construction to energy, industrial manufacturing, transportation and finance, according to Liu Xingguo, a researcher from the China Enterprise Confederation, who made the comments to Xinhua News Agency.

China Railway Construction Corp, for example, has operated in Africa for about 50 years. It built railways up to 11,000 kilometers in Nigeria, Angola and Ethiopia, as well as 4,800-km-long highways, including one expressway in Algeria. The company also built residential houses, ports and hospitals there, according to Zhuang Shangbiao, president of the company, adding that the proportion of local workers in African projects remains at 90 percent.

The railway that connects Mombasa with Nairobi in Kenya is another major China-invested project. CRRC Corp not only constructed but also provided management methods to the railway. China Railway Signal and Communication Corp built its communications, signal and information parts. China Communications Construction provided operation and maintenance services.

Shu Yinbiao, former chairman of State Grid Corp of China, once said that the company has 120 projects in Africa and joined energy infrastructural construction in 25 African countries, with a total contract amount up to $4.5 billion, according to a Xinhua report in September.

He added Africa has advantages in developing solar power, wind power and hydropower. "After the improvement of power grids, the clean energy can meet the demand for electricity across the continent."

In the past, State-owned enterprises mainly invested in infrastructural projects in Africa. Now, they transform from merely investing to helping in the sustainable development of the economy in African countries. The trend also conforms to the significant progress of the development of local technologies and economy, according to Liu.

Hunan Construction Engineering Group built the first modern wrestling arena in Senegal, with an area of 18,000 square meters and can host an audience of 20,000. It also built a hydropower station in Sierra Leone and a rural primary school in Liberia.

Ye Xinping, Party secretary and chairman of the company, said the economic benefit of overseas programs should go hand in hand with social benefit.

The company provided one-on-one guidance to African technicians and workers. It also donated living materials and cash to families in economic difficulty.

(China Daily 06/28/2019 page24)