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In-Depth
Special> 50th Anniversary of Sino-Tanzanian Diplomatic Relations> In-Depth
UPDATED: April 24, 2014 VOL.6 May 2014
Benefits Down the Line
Chinese construction company that built Tazara Railway brings skills and employment to East Africa
By Hou Weili
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China delivers locomotives for the Tazara line in the early 1970s (FILE)

While at school in the 1980s, Wang Xiangdong's knowledge about Africa centered on the Tazara Railway, a turnkey project financed and completed by China in the 1970s. While being proud of the project symbolizing the depth of Sino-African friendship, Wang was intrigued by the remote continent, but never in his wildest dreams expected that his future would be intertwined with Africa. After graduating from university in 1997, Wang joined China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. (CCECC) and one year later was sent to Africa to begin his long association with the continent.

"The Tazara Railway is like a golden-lettered signboard for our company. We receive warm hospitality when local people learn we are the constructors of the railway," said Wang, now General Manager of CCECC East Africa Ltd., in an interview with ChinAfrica.

The friendship founded on the back of Tazara, a 1,860-km rail that runs from East Africa's major seaport of Dar es Salaam,Tanzania, into the heart of Zambia's Central Province, was forged over decades and involved the efforts and hardships of CCECC employees like Wang. Developed from China's former Foreign Aid Bureau of the Ministry of Railways, CCECC was one of the first Chinese enterprises engaged in international project contracting. As an overseas branch of CCECC, CCECC East Africa was the undertaker of the Tazara Railway project. Now having integrated neighboring markets in Ugandaand Rwanda, it has grown into an international project contractor with top-grade qualifications. 

African roots

Unlike the globalization approach of many other Chinese enterprises that get bigger in the domestic market and then go on to compete in the global arena, CCECC East Africa has always positioned itself as an international contractor. This means that the career life of most CCECC employees starts with working abroad. Wang was no exception. He was sent toBotswanathe second year he joined CCECC. Life then was not easy.

"I just returned home once during the first four years. The main [method of] communication [then] was writing to my family once or twice every month," Wang said. "As international call charges at that time were expensive and the construction site was usually far away from cities where telephones were available, we had to travel miles for a minute-long call just to make sure that the family were fine," he added.

Today CCECC carries on the spirit of friendly cooperation generation after generation and continues to helpTanzania and Zambiaoperate and maintain the Tazara Railway. In recent years, CCECC has expanded its business to markets like water supply and drainage projects inTanzania. Since 2004, the company has undertaken two water supply and drainage projects under a contract worth $100 million, according to Wang. "We completed the projects with high quality and received widespread praise from the president, officials of water resource departments and ordinary people," Wang said.

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