Author: Gui Tao
Translator: Laiyin Yuan
Published on: 09/28/2014
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Original text (in Chinese): http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-09/28/c_1112658554.htm
“Chinese always stay together like mercury, while Westerners spread everywhere like water.” In some circles, this is an accurate description for Chinese companies and their Chinese employees in Africa. Self-isolation, lack of effective communication with locals, ignorance of labor laws and regulations, weak awareness of social responsibility, and exhausting internal competitions among peers… these are all the “growing pains” that Chinese enterprises are going through as they look to create jobs and transfer technology for Africa’s economic development.
On September 27, in the “Chinese Enterprises’ Localization in Africa and China’s Africa Strategy Seminar” jointly held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Institute of World History and the Center for African Studies of Peking University (PKUCAS), many experts, corporate leaders, and representatives of overseas Chinese in Africa looked for “prescriptions” to improve Chinese company localization in African countries.
The attendees believed that, although Chinese state-owned, private, and individual enterprises have all contributed tremendously to a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between China and Africa, some of these organizations have left a rather negative impression among host countries due to Africans’ increasing awareness of autonomous development, biased reporting on part of Western media, their own problems, and more.
