Huajian Shoe Industry: Ethiopia Seeks Cheap Labor Force

< p > > a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_cj.as" > Beijing < /a > morning on July 23rd morning, foreign media said on Tuesday that a group of Ethiopia workers wandered around the parking lot of the Huajian shoe industry in the adidas Baba factory one day last month.

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Zhang Huarong, President of P, has just checked from China. He saw the workers through the window and rushed out of the room immediately.

Zhang Huarong, a former soldier, scolded them in Chinese, grabbed one of his Polo shirts, and asked another person to tie his clothes to his trousers.

At a loss, the workers stood still until the anger subsided.

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< p > shaping the image of some employees is only part of Zhang Huarong's activities in the locals. What's more, the benefit from Huajian's salary paid by local factories is about $40 a month, which is only less than 10% of the salary level in China.

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Zhang Huarong, P, aged 55, said, "Ethiopia is like China thirty years ago."

He retired in 1982. He made three shoemaking machines in his home in Jiangxi. Now there are many brands such as Nine West and Guess.

He described the situation in Ethiopia: "bad pport infrastructure, a large number of unemployed people."

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Less than P, at the invitation of Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, nearly three years after the adventures of Ethiopia.

He said he was not satisfied with the profits of his Dongguan Huajian shoe company in the local factories, and was deeply tired of the widespread inefficiency of the local authorities and the fact that the productivity of the Chinese factories was only 1/3 of that of the Chinese factories.

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The pportation and logistics cost of "P > < a href=" http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_cj.as ", which is four times the level of" /a "in China, has forced the Huajian shoe industry to establish its own Truck Company. Zhang Huarong also said that using the four languages in the same factory, the official language of Ethiopia, the Al Hal, the local dialect, Oro, English and Chinese, made the whole operation more complicated.

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< p > the distance from the capital of Ethiopia to the Huajian shoe factory along the main road of the country is 30 kilometers (18 miles), but it takes two hours on the road. This can be regarded as a symbol of the challenges faced by local businesses.

Oil tankers and trucks are bumping on the bumpy, bumpy, sometimes unfinished roads.

Goats, donkeys and cattle walk freely on the road and occasionally walk to the middle of the road.

Local minibus and dilapidated taxis are mostly blue Rada, which are provided by the former socialist ally of the Soviet Union.

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Less than P, however, the Huajian shoe industry has become an excellent example of Ethiopia's potential as a manufacturing center for labor-intensive products from shoes to T-shirts and handbags.

In a country where 80% of the working population is concentrated in agriculture, manufacturers hardly encounter difficulties in finding new workers.

Ethiopia has a population of 96 million, second only to Nigeria in Africa.

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P, the author of "the dragon's gift: the true story of China in Africa", said Deborah Brautigam, Professor of international development and comparative politics at the Johns Hopkins University's advanced international school of international studies, said that the combination of cheap labor and low-cost power supply, coupled with the government's eagerness to attract foreign investment, made Ethiopia a more attractive option than other African countries.

He said, "they are trying to create the conditions for a pformation. (Ethiopia) may become China in Africa."

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< p > Huajian shoes industry has 3500 workers in Ethiopia, and 2 million pairs of shoes were produced in 2013.

The factory started production in January 2012, the first government supported Industrial Park in the country, which is only three months away from Zhang Huarong's decision to invest.

He said that the factory realized profits in the first year, and now it can earn between 100 thousand and 200 thousand dollars per month.

Still, Zhang Huarong said, the return is not high enough, and the number will increase as workers become more proficient.

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< p > under the fluorescent lamp < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_cj.as" > bright /a >, the machine is buzzing. The workers cut, glued and sewed the Mark Fisher brown leather boots ready to be sent to the United States. The supervisors inspected the quota figures on the whiteboard, issued a small cash reward to the winning team, and criticized the workers who failed to complete the quota.

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(P) in Ethiopia and Tanzania, Rwanda, Senegal and other African countries can become a manufacturing base for labor-intensive products, China, Africa and the global retailers have their own interests.

Promoting trade, promoting employment and stimulating investment will be the theme that will be discussed during the first White House summit between the United States and African leaders from August 4th to 6.

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