Building an airport, building a future
- By Ding Ying
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Beijing Review, September 20, 2011
Bakari Omari, a 21-year-old man from Tanga, the second biggest city in Tanzania, is among the numerous Africans that have benefited from Chinese investment.
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| Omari works at the construction site of Zanzibar Airport Terminal 2, a project under BCEG's contract. [Maverick Chen / China.org.cn] |
![Omari works at the construction site of Zanzibar Airport Terminal 2, a project under BCEG's contract. [Maverick Chen / China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110920/001fd04cea510fe2936a04.jpg "Omari works at the construction site of Zanzibar Airport Terminal 2, a project under BCEG's contract. [Maverick Chen / China.org.cn]")
Omari grew up in a poor family with several kids, and only finished seventh grade. It was hard for him to get a job in his hometown. In February when he heard there was a Chinese enterprise in Zanzibar recruiting workers, he went there and got his first job.
He now earns 4,500 shillings ($3) for one day's work. Normally, local enterprises only pay 4,000 shillings ($2.7) per day for workers. "I hope I can work here all along, and make 5,000 shillings ($3.3) for a day," he said.
His goal is to make some money and then go back for further education. "I hope I can live better than people in my neighborhood," he said.
Omari is working on a project for the Beijing Construction Engineering Group Ltd. (BCEG)—a new terminal building for the Zanzibar International Airport. The Chinese Government provided a 30-year preferential loan of 480 million yuan ($73.85 million). The whole project will cost $704 million.
The project started in February, and will be finished by January 31, 2014, according to BCEG. The whole project includes a 17,000-square-meter terminal building, a small power station, and a bigger apron. When the new project is finished, the airport will have the ability to hold three airplanes, and will be able to service 3 million passengers every year. "The new terminal will be a landmark of the Zanzibar region and the whole of Tanzania," said Wu Qing, a BCEG representative.
"We needed at least 120 workers every day for underground works. Now that those works have finished, we need only 60. All the workers are Tanzanian citizens," he said. "Our supervisors are mostly local people, too. They can get 10,000 shillings ($6.6) per day, which is a pretty high income in the country."
The Zanzibar Airport is only one of the many projects BCEG has contracted in Africa. From 2004 to 2010, its contract volume in Tanzania alone reached $2.39 trillion. "Our techniques and quality are as good as U.S. and European companies. But our cost is much lower than those companies," Wu said.
"It is not fair to say Chinese enterprises hire only workers from China," he said. "Our projects bring a lot of job opportunities for local people, not just in Africa. In Mongolia, at lease half of our employees are local. In Malaysia, all employees must be Malaysian or Indonesian, due to local regulations."
By conducting overseas projects, BCEG can make a profit while helping local people, Wu said. BCEG also trains its local employees during project construction. "Our young workers may hopefully become outstanding experts in construction in their country in 20 years' time. Some of them are very industrious," he said.
