"One Belt And One Road" Strategy For Chinese Enterprises To Go Out To Build A Platform

Ethiopia Huajian factory production line.

At the end of 2016, Guangdong, twenty-first Century, the sea. silk At the international fair, it was praised as "China" by the industry. Women's Shoes Zhang Huarong, chairman of the godfather, Huajian group, has been very successful. "Haibo has set up a good platform for us, hoping that every year there will be such an opportunity for business opportunities."

Huajian group is following closely. The Belt and Road Initiative "The strategic go out enterprise", from October 2011 to now, Huajian group started from Dongguan and crossed the earth 1/4 weeks long distance to invest and set up factories in Ethiopia to compose the song of Sino African cooperation. At present, Esai Huajian has 4200 employees in Ethiopia, and the annual export of women's shoes is 2 million 400 thousand pairs, accounting for more than 50% of the export share of Ethiopia's footwear industry. Ethiopia has become the largest export enterprise in Ethiopia. Huajian international light industrial city is China's largest cooperation project in Africa.

"We not only create profits and employment, but also bring China's industrial civilization that has been precipitated for decades to Africa." Zhang Huarong said.

　 A new factory of 500 people was built in 1100 days.

At the Hayes Expo site, the booth of Huajian group attracted the attention of all circles. Zhang Huarong pointed to the sand table of Huajian international light industrial city on the booth. Under the impetus of Huajian, more than 10 enterprises in Dongguan were ready to enter Huajian international light industrial city, and the related industries were also sold to Africa. Recently, Dongguan enterprises have signed 11 investment projects in South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya. Statistics show that in 2015, Dongguan's import and export trade with Africa totaled 2 billion 90 million US dollars, an increase of 46.1%, of which exports were US $1 billion 830 million, an increase of 51.9%.

Huajian's story is the representative of Dongguan's traditional manufacturing transformation. In 1996, Zhang Huarong came to Dongguan alone with hundreds of thousands of yuan to set up Dongguan Huajian shoe industry. Starting from scratch and becoming the leader of China's largest women's footwear manufacturer, Zhang Huarong's entrepreneurial experience is not without hardship, but it is also full of opportunities. Today, the layout of Africa is considered by the Huajian people to be the perfect combination of national strategy and their own development needs.

Back to 2011, with the rising labor costs, the mode of factor driven development has gradually declined. As the largest footwear exporters in China, Huajian group has decided to go out of the country under the guidance of the "going global" policy. In August 12, 2011, Zhang Huarong met with senior Ethiopia executives in Shenzhen to conclude their cooperation. In October of that year, Huajian decided to invest in Ethiopia. Since then, Huajian has shipped shoe making equipment to Ethiopia, arranged Chinese personnel to work in Ethiopia, and recruited Ethiopia staff to Dongguan for training.

In January 2012, only three months after the cooperation was finalized, the new factory set up by Huajian group in Ethiopia Eastern Industrial Park was formally put into operation. "In just 100 days, we launched a 500 artificial factory. The main media in the world reported our enterprises in Dongguan, and reported Huajian, reporting that China's large manufacturing enterprises went into Africa, and demonstrated for Africa's economic development, foreign exchange earning and resettlement." Zhang Huarong said.

On May 2014, Premier Li Keqiang and Ethiopia prime minister, Haier, jointly signed the project for Huajian in Ethiopia's Industrial Park, which is considered to be one of the "representative works" of China's traditional manufacturing industry heading for Africa.

Driven by Huajian, more and more Guan enterprises began to enter Ethiopia. On September 2015, a delegation from the government and enterprise led by Hare Mariam, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, came to Dongguan to witness the signing of the cooperation letter between Huajian group and 16 representatives of Huajian international light industrial park.

Haier said that Ethiopia and Dongguan have a good foundation for cooperation. With the support of Dongguan, Huajian group has been investing more and more in Ethiopia. It is hoped that more "Huajian" can come to Ethiopia and take Ethiopia as an important node for Dongguan enterprises to go to Africa.

"Under the strategic layout of" one belt and one road ", Ethiopia hopes to work together with Dongguan to build an African manufacturing center. Haier said.

　 Become a microcosm of Guan enterprises investing in Africa

A pair of high-heeled shoes are flowing on the production line, and the workers are polishing and gluing on both sides. This is the most common scene of Dongguan Huajian shoe industry. In Ethiopia, 15 thousand kilometers away, the same work on the assembly line is carried out in the local light industrial city. The difference is just the skin color of the workers.

Although the company has arrived in Ethiopia, Huajian has reached a consensus on the main business except for the processing sector. At present, Huajian group's business in Dongguan headquarters is mainly procurement, business research and development, high-end manufacturing, and in the future will include intelligent manufacturing and other links.

"Dongguan is a place with good policies, good environment, good people and good atmosphere for development. It has a bright future for shoemaking industry." Zhang Huarong believed that the three hundred and sixty industries, the industry and the industry, will be the best players in every industry.

In Zhang Huarong's view, China's hundreds of millions of people need to wear shoes, but for China's plastics industry and brand, China can not do without Dongguan. Because of this, Huajian in Dongguan is mainly to stabilize the scale, make thorough, deepen and strengthen. "Our per capita output value in Dongguan has reached 12 thousand to 16 thousand dollars, which is two times to three times that of Ethiopia, and Dongguan still has potential to tap." He said.

Huajian's practice is the epitome of many Dongguan enterprises investing in Africa. In recent years, many processing and manufacturing industries in Dongguan have gone out and invested in African countries. With the increase of shoe making and furniture enterprises invested in Africa, some enterprises in Dongguan began to sell their production equipment to Africa. After investigation, Dongguan entrepreneurs also recognized that Africa was Dongguan twenty or thirty years ago, full of manufacturing opportunities.

Reporters learned that Huajian Dongguan headquarters upgraded traditional manual manufacturing, implemented automation and intellectualization, reduced manpower, increased efficiency, increased added value and improved quality, and carried out reforms in the management system, in particular the establishment of incentive mechanism for the distribution of cadres' interests to achieve common development. Zhang Huarong disclosed that although the employment of Dongguan companies has been greatly reduced than before, business has not been less than before, and turnover has increased this year.

"We are not leaving, we are going to follow the strategy of" one belt and one road ". Enterprises should retain the retained ones and go out. Zhang Huarong said, to retain growth, to go out to develop. This also answers the question of "who should go out, who should stay, which part should go out and which part should stay".

Prior to his participation in the forum in Dongguan, Long Yongtu, former Secretary General of the Boao forum and vice minister of the Ministry of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said that the process of industrial transfer is also a process of upgrading the industry. In the past, the transfer of low-end manufacturing in Dongguan could provide the necessary space and resources for the transformation and upgrading of industries.

Build a platform for Chinese enterprises to go out

Zhang Huarong has counted an account, Ethiopia has enough labor force, labor cost is only 1/10 of China, at the same time, it has favorable policies such as export duty free and so on. On the other hand, Ethiopia is the second largest country in Africa, and its unemployment rate is close to 50%. In addition, a large number of high quality leather products are needed, and the labor intensive enterprises such as Huajian are urgently needed.

The strategy of "one belt and one road" is very forward-looking and is continuing to release enormous economic energy. According to Zhang Huarong analysis, China's labor intensive industries have encountered bottlenecks in development, and accelerating China's manufacturing to Africa is a good way to accelerate the development of China's labor-intensive enterprises. While pursuing efficiency, enterprises are also helping Africa's economic development and promoting the progress of human civilization.

It is understood that Huajian has 4200 employees, 6 production lines and shoe materials factories in Ethiopia, with 2 million 400 thousand pairs of shoes exported annually, with an average profit margin of 10%, and a profit of 15 million yuan in 2015. To further expand the industry, Huajian Group invested 3 billion 200 million US dollars to build Huajian international light industrial city in Addisababa, to build a high-end platform for Guangdong and Africa industrial cooperation, and to promote more Guangdong enterprises going to Africa and investing in Africa.

According to Huajian group's plan, the park will be completed in 2020, with the goal of building a sustainable, efficient, integrated industrial city and highly environmentally friendly humanized community, and creating a successful example of "made in China" into Africa. It is expected that more than 60% of Ethiopia's footwear, clothing, handbags and other products will come from Huajian International Light Industrial Park, which can earn 2 billion US dollars annually, providing 30 thousand to 50 thousand jobs.

As an enterprise that "lives for the society and strives for the industry", Zhang Huarong admits that Huajian not only needs to go out, but also lets China light industry go out.