Dedicating One's Youth to the Horn of Africa

Between 34-40 degrees east longitude and 6-9 degrees north latitude, at the heart of the Horn of Africa, there is Ethiopia which is known as the "country closest to the sun" in the African continent. Ethiopia borders Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south and Eritrea to the north. It also borders the Middle East to the east. The country has been a transportation hub for thousands of years.

As an important country along the Belt and Road and a pilot and demonstration country in China-Africa production capacity cooperation, Ethiopia is filled with "made in China" products almost in every corner. Many admirable people have been fighting here and holding on to this land. Wei Qiangyu is one of them.

Since graduation some 13 years ago, Wei Qiangyu, the deputy manager of East Africa regional headquarters and country manager of the Ethiopia office, CCCC First Highway Engineering Group Co. Ltd. (CFHEC), has been sticking to the overseas markets of CFHEC. Years of working abroad is a life experience for every international engineering practitioner. With every effort, gain and hardship, these young people working overseas – as represented by Wei – have steeled themselves in character and developed a responsible spirit.

Worthwhile Efforts

"July 23, 2008," Wei Qiangyu blurted out the date. This was the day that he embarked on his journey to Ethiopia, heading to Africa for the very first time.

Thirteen years ago, Wei graduated from Chang'an University. He majored in English, but he also studied courses in civil engineering. As such, his ideal job was a position in the engineering field that also allowed him to utilize his language skills.

That June, CFHEC was among the first companies to recruit students from Chang'an University. At that time, the company was rapidly developing overseas and thus in need of English talents. After the interview, Wei Qiangyu was admitted to the company on the very same day. When he was told that he would be sent to Africa soon, he said "As a student who majored in English, I always dreamed about learning new things, bettering myself and improving my language skills abroad." It seemed "natural" to him..

Wei had high expectations for his journey to Africa. "Speaking of Africa, many people would use words like 'undeveloped', 'poor' or 'warring' to describe the continent," he said. "Is that the case? Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to travel there and experience it myself." After searching for information online and receiving two weeks of basic training, Wei set off with high hopes.

When he first arrived in Africa, he was assigned to the CFHEC's MC project in remote northern Ethiopia, engaging in office work. His job mainly consisted of translation, outreach work, local employee management and procurement of materials. He explained that the MC project was more than 500 km from the capital of Ethiopia and located in a semi-desert area. The average daytime temperature there is about 38 degrees all year round, which is difficult to bear, making the project one of the company's most challenging projects in Ethiopia at the time. He still remembers the moment he opened the car door on arriving at the project site and he was almost "pushed back" by the heat. At that time, it was the dry season. If he wore short sleeves, his exposed skin would soon become sunburned and start to peel.

Due to the lack of materials at the site, Wei Qiangyu had to travel to the capital Addis Ababa almost weekly to purchase materials. Generally, he would travel in a light truck back and forth between the site and the capital. Working on the project for over two years, he travelled more than 90,000 km along this road. "That's almost the same distance as twice around the Earth," he said with a smile.

When he first started working, sometimes on the road, he would try to chat with the driver in English, or order food in small restaurants they passed by, but he found that the locals barely understood what he said. As an English major, this made him very frustrated. Later, he discovered that their native language was Amharic, and few people could speak English well. Determined to overcome the language barrier, he practiced the local language and used some simple English words. Eventually he succeeded in working and communicating with the locals in a much better way.

Differences in professional background have always been the biggest challenge for Wei Qiangyu. To finish the procurement work, he needed to be familiar with materials related to engineering and machinery. To do a good translation job, he needed to familiarize himself with international engineering contracts and related knowledge. He had to study hard, act humbly and accumulate related knowledge little by little with patience.

After more than two years of working on the MC project, Wei was transferred to the Ethiopia office of CFHEC in 2012, where he engaged in market development and customer relationship maintenance. At the beginning on his job, he encountered a test, as he was given a three-month trial and a warning that he would have to leave if he didn't do well. For Wei, this added pressure was also a motivation. Recalling that time, he explained that he was "faltering" and kept learning how to "run", and how to turn unfamiliar tasks into daily routines.

"The first bidding document was completed after reading through every clause, comparing it against previous bidding materials, and constantly learning from my colleagues," he said. "The first serious official letter was completed after reading through previous correspondence, comparing every word and sentence, and revising again and again according to the management' opinions. The first feasibility report was completed after searching for and learning from different materials and continuously studying for over three months. Meanwhile, the first draft contract was finished after systematically sorting through and studying a series of FIDIC contract clauses, accumulating knowledge on project management and reviewing past project contracts."

Wei's efforts were paid back by one result after another: a memorandum of cooperation, a contract, an approved feasibility report and loan application. When the achievements came, Wei Qiangyu felt that all his efforts were worthwhile.

Exploring New Market Fields

"After switching to business work, though I didn't engage in the implementation of specific projects, I have participated or taken the lead in the early stages of each of CFHEC's new projects in Ethiopia over the past decade," Wei Qiangyu said. Besides the construction work, he also needed to keep a close eye on the projects, follow up and evaluate their feasibility, formulate and implement related plans, prepare contracts, verify business terms, implement financing and so on. All of these tasks were within his work remit.

Prior to 2012, CFHEC's projects in Ethiopia mainly focused on the construction of roads. With the proposal of the company's diversification strategy and the demand from the rapid development of country markets, and also conforming to China's strategy of "going global" and overseas development, the company has firmly grasped the market development opportunities over the past few years by deeply expanding its traditional road market and exploring new business fields.

The Bole International Airport was the first project Wei Qiangyu successfully accomplished since he participated in business work. He was fully involved in the first phase of the project, from negotiations and contract signing to loan implementation. The project was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, and the preliminary workload was huge, including communicating with the owner, providing specific plans, compiling a feasibility report, liaising with the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance, preparing materials for the loan application, and communicating and coordinating whenever problems arose in the project review. As he just stepped into the new field of business work, it was undoubtedly a huge challenge for him.

During the three months of preparations, Wei worked day and night, often staying up until the wee hours of the following day. He devoted a significant amount of time and energy to exploring new overseas businesses. After this experience, his engineering expertise and business abilities improved massively. He also became more well-rounded at work. In October 2012, the contract for the first phase of the Bole International Airport project was signed, the value of which was 225 million U.S. dollars. "The project gave me a great sense of accomplishment and made me more confident in doing business work," he said. "Airport is a window and business card of a country. The Bole International Airport carries the aviation dreams of the Ethiopian people." 

Nowadays, the Bole International Airport has exceeded 10 million passengers in annual throughput, making it one of the busiest airports in Africa. It has basically achieved the goal of becoming an "aviation hub that connects Africa with the world" and is one of the most important transportation hubs in East Africa.

The Riverbank Greening Renovation Project was another breakthrough for CFHEC in the field of business, and also a new attempt for Wei Qiangyu. He explained that this comprehensive project – covering an area of over 25 hectares – integrated landscaping, architecture, municipal administration, roads and water conservancy. It was a key foreign aid project of the Chinese government and was deemed as a "priority" project, on which the Ethiopian government attached huge importance. It was also of great significance due to the fact that it was a concrete measure in implementing the "green development" actions of the "eight major initiatives" proposed at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

As it is one of CFHEC's main projects in Ethiopia, the company's staff worked all out. Since the project began, leading local professionals from all sectors came to visit and study. The prime minister of Ethiopia not only checked on the progress of the project from an observation tower at his office, but also went to the site to personally inspect the work.

"Sometimes he would drive to the site on his own," Wei said, "When he visited, some workers didn't recognize him, but he never minded and would kindly ask about the progress of the project." To Wei's surprise, the prime minister was very familiar with the project, knowing exactly what was going on in different areas of the project. "We must be as diligent as the Chinese people, so as to make Ethiopia as good as China in the future," he told local employees during an inspection.

Ten months later, the main part of the project was complete. At a ceremony marking the milestone, both the president and prime minister of Ethiopia highly praised the project which has greatly boosted the image of China and the friendship between the two countries.

Since engaging in business work in 2012, Wei Qiangyu has finished more than 4.5 billion U.S. dollars of newly signed contracts, including 1.66 billion U.S. dollars for traditional road projects, 1.63 billion U.S. dollars for railway projects, 500 million U.S. dollars for airport projects, 279 million U.S. dollars for housing construction projects, 323 million U.S. dollars for industrial parks and 139 million U.S. dollars for urban complex projects.

"New product development in every area is a process of learning and improvement. Business personnel should not only complete procedural work, but also fundamentally grasp the nature of the project, the scope of work, the main risk control points, and so on," Wei said. In recent years, growing familiarity with railways, airports, housing construction, industrial parks and other projects has allowed him to improve his ability to handle new businesses. With the implementation and completion of these projects, of CFHEC is gaining more and more talents, resources and implementation experience in many fields in the Ethiopian market.

From the beginning of market development to the end of project implementation, and then to further feedback in market development, Wei Qiangyu has formed a virtuous circle in his work. Over the past few years, from traditional fields to new ones, he has continued to accumulate experience and knowledge. He has helped lay the foundation for the company's development and operations in new fields, and establish support, confidence and guarantees for the company to further explore new markets.

Striving for Excellence

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, halting many projects overseas, including the Riverbank Greening Renovation Project and the Revolution Square Project, in which Wei Qiangyu has participated. The latter was even hit by the pandemic at the start of construction.

Wei led the bid negotiations for the Revolution Square Project. At that time, he had just returned home to China for vacation. Facing the worsening situation and worried of being unable to return to the project, he immediately decided to give up his holiday and returned to Ethiopia on Jan. 30, 2020. He said that he had gone through two different epidemic situations and anti-pandemic experiences at home and abroad, with "the first half at home and the second half abroad".

"The first case of COVID-19 in Ethiopia was confirmed in March. At that time, we had implemented a series of prevention measures according to the company's requirements, including keeping social distance, wearing masks, washing hands and frequently disinfecting things. However, the locals still hadn't attached enough importance to the pandemic," he said. In the early days of the epidemic, Ethiopians did not wear masks at meetings and other public gatherings. Even though the Chinese side prepared masks for them in advance, the Ethiopian side would either refuse to use them or wear them improperly. This was a risk for the safety of the Chinese staff.

The Revolution Square Project started during the pandemic period, which was a challenge for Wei Qiangyu. Although it was not his first time presiding over bid negotiations, he was still under heavy pressure due to the serious concerns of the Ethiopian government and the tight construction schedule. "Winning the bid wasn't easy. My team was the bridge between Ethiopia's top management and the project staff. We effectively coordinated both sides and assigned tasks to each member successfully and accurately," he said.

The project started in May 2020 and experienced a four-month rainy season. The construction work was very challenging and the schedule was very tight. The staff in all departments of the project kept working overtime regardless of the pouring rain, and the construction lasted 11 months without suspension, winning the praise by both the prime minister of Ethiopia and the mayor of Addis Ababa numerous times.

When asked when his next vacation would be, Wei Qiangyu replied with a smile: "International engineering is a special industry – it requires workers to be prepared to be away from their homes, families and friends with the thought that work and life cannot be separated." He added, "International engineering development is a much 'rougher' job. It needs to continue regardless of the effects of rainy seasons and the duration is uncertain. Also, the development process of a project spans a long period. Therefore, vacation has become a luxury."

Over the past decade of working to develop markets, Wei Qiangyu has never enjoyed a normal holiday. At times, he has even voluntarily given up his vacation. Other times, he has been forced to delay his return to China, or to return to Ethiopia earlier than expected. It seems that he can only enjoy the precious time with his family when he comes back to China to attend meetings.

Wei admitted that the company's business in Ethiopia has developed very well over the past decade. The volume of projects has continued to grow, and the types of projects have become more diverse. Behind these achievements are extremely high requirements. The staff need to keep learning, working and fulfilling task after task before the deadline. No mistakes can be tolerated and improvements are always needed. As such, they hardly have time to rest, with overtime and late nights becoming part of their daily routine.

"At midnight, when working in the office preparing materials, what comes to my mind is not hardship, but the awe of work, my responsibility to the company, my commitment, willingness to contribute to it and the expectation of results. This should also be the original aspiration and mission of our generation of international engineers," Wei said.

The countless days and nights of hard work and dedication have all been worthwhile. Wei has not only developed his skills, but also gained recognition from related management and colleagues for his contributions to CFHEC. Since 2012, Wei Qiangyu has been named "Outstanding Young Professional Technical Cadre" of the company for eight times.

"As a Chinese person who is rooted in one of the Belt and Road countries, my personal experiences over recent years have helped me deeply realize China's hard-won prosperity and the far-reaching influence of the Belt and Road Initiative," he said. There are many young people like Wei Qiangyu who go abroad, devoting themselves to the wave of global development. They make use of their knowledge, abilities and wisdom to take up their responsibilities and contribute their own strengths to the future of China.