By Xinyi Li, EDITOR
On April 9, Teshome Toga, Ethiopian Ambassador to China, came to Chongqing and paid a visit to an enterprise there.
Chongqing Sansheng Industrial Co., Ltd. (“Sansheng Shares” for short), which has made great contributions to Ethiopia, was his destination.
Sansheng Shares is a Chongqing business, which set up in Ethiopia, and obtained the praise of Ethiopian president
In August 2016, Sansheng Shares gave a positive response to the “Belt and Road” Initiative and extended its businesses to Africa. On November 15 of that year, a concrete plant with the investment of USD 15 million opened in Eastern Industrial Zone in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. It took only 77 days from construction to production, which was unprecedented in Ethiopia. Hailemariam Desalegn, then Prime Minister of Ethiopia, hailed it as “the speed of Sansheng Shares”. Major media in Ethiopia came to report and the “the speed of Sansheng Shares” went viral in the country.
The two enterprises of Sansheng Shares in Ethiopia, Sansheng Building Materials and Sansheng Pharmacy, contribute about USD 14 million to the country’s tax revenue every year after putting into operation.
Both projects offer import substitutions that, if produced at full capacity, help save about USD 98 million a year in foreign exchange. Meanwhile, the products of both projects can be exported to earn foreign exchange. When produced at full capacity and 50% of the products being exported, about USD 40 million of annual foreign exchange could be earned, thus alleviating Ethiopia’s foreign exchange shortage to a certain degree.
In addition, Sansheng Pharmacy and Sansheng Building Materials provided more than 400 posts, with 90% of localization rate of employees. Some Ethiopian top employees also have the opportunity to get training in China, which enables them to independently conduct production and management.
In November 2017, at the invitation of the 17th Session of the General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Sansheng Shares, together with Alibaba, Huawei, Huajian Group and Lifan Group, attended the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa and introduced the development experience on the stage.
Source: Chongqing Daily News