The Company Aiming to Foster a New Kind of China-Africa Relationship

Hai is keen to emphasise the long term aims of the company, stating that, “We are not coming all the way here just to reduce our costs by 10 to 20%…Our aim is in 10 years’ time to have a new cluster of shoe making here. We want to build a whole supply chain … I want everything to be produced here.”This isn’t the first time a Chinese firm has invested so much into Africa. Fostered by the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), a private equity facility promoting Chinese investment in the continent, there have been numerous infrastructural, natural resource and other diverse venture partnerships planned between the two nations in the past few years. This fund was the brainchild of a 2006 Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, with has raised three billion dollars since its inception.

CADFund is joining forces with the Huajian Group on this project too, and together the two organisations hope not just to create immediate employment, but also foster a new generation of managers and business leaders in the region.130 university graduates from southern Ethiopia have already been selected by the company to spend a year at its training facility in China, with a further 270 more will be recruited down the line. Hai explains, “They are going to be the future managers…They are going to be a new force.”

Already employing 600 people in Addis Abada, Huajian ultimately hopes to create employment for 100,000 Ethiopians through joint investment in the light manufacturing special economic zone, 30,000 of these who will be engaged directly with the company.

Huajian has already signed a lease on the land where it plans to build a “shoe city,” which will provide accommodation and industrial space for 200,000 shoe and apparel makers. The complex will also promote and support local entrepreneurship. According to Hai, [It will be] a one-stop shop for manufacturers that are similar to us,”

Although many fear the Chinese foray in Africa could be tantamount to neocolonialism, Hai is keen to promote an ethical business strategy, one that differs from the pushy tactics of other firms from China in the region. “One thing in my strategy is very clear: that I don’t want to compete with locals,” Hai says. “I want to help them grow because when local producers grow, the whole market is growing. If it is just myself growing here in five years’ time, I will leave.”