Feature: Chinese firms' corporate social responsibility initiatives benefit communities in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Increased diplomatic and economic engagement between China and Zimbabwe has seen many Chinese companies investing in the southern African country. These Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe are engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that aim to improve the livelihoods of ordinary people in the communities they operate in and play their part as responsible participants in the local economy.

The initiatives that they have undertaken include the funding of public health programs, sponsoring education, providing access to clean water, fighting the pandemic.

Considering that education is the foundation of economic development, Chinese companies are pouring resources into the sector.

To help young people stay in school during the COVID-19 pandemic, PG Foundation, a charitable arm of PG industries, a Chinese invested company, stepped up efforts to provide assistance in supporting vulnerable children in disadvantaged communities.

"We have seen that the youths have succumbed to drug abuse, to early pregnancy, and from skipping school, and this concerned us because the youths are the future of our country," Sakhile Khumalo, marketing executive at PG Industries, told Xinhua.

Pandemic-induced economic challenges have seen many parents from poor backgrounds failing to raise funds to send children to school, which has created a window for children to engage in illicit behavior.

Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, is playing its part in bridging the technical skills gap in Zimbabwe's telecommunications sector through its Seeds for the Future program. The Seeds for the Future program is Huawei's global flagship CSR initiative that aims to nurture young ICT professionals in countries where Huawei operates. Beneficiaries of "the Seeds for the Future" described the program as an eye-opener that has given them a new ICT perspective and broadened their career paths.

"If we can continue engaging with the giants like Huawei, we can be able to tap their knowledge, they can be able to give us the knowledge that they have and the experience such that we as Zimbabweans can be able to adopt the technologies that China is using for the betterment of our ICT industry," said Takudzwa Tarutira, a telecommunications student who benefited from the Seeds for the Future program.

In an interview with Xinhua, Huawei's local partner TelOne General Manager Sharai Dube praised Huawei's unique approach to corporate social responsibility which focuses on empowering local communities.

"So traditionally corporate social responsibility whereby people are given donations, money donations, they use it today and tomorrow they will still need more. In this case, we see that the students basically are being trained and their skill-set basically is being improved so that they can be able to then use it in the future for their own betterment," said Dube.

Since the Seeds for the Future program was launched in Zimbabwe in 2015, more than 80 undergraduate students from different universities in Zimbabwe have benefited.

In the education sector, Chinese enterprises in cooperation with China-Africa Economic and Cultural Research Center, a local research institute, are also providing scholarships to Zimbabwean students.

IMPROVING LIVELIHOODS

In many rural districts across Zimbabwe, Chinese engineering and construction company China Jiangxi Corporation in collaboration with China Aid, the international aid agency of the Chinese government, has helped local communities by drilling boreholes.

Since 2012, a total of 1,000 boreholes have been drilled in six provinces across Zimbabwe.

One of the beneficiaries of the program, Nothokozo Ngulube, from Gwanda district, Matebeleland South Province, said the borehole drilling initiative has brought convenience to women since spending more time searching for water meant that they had to set aside productive work.

"This availability of water near our villages has benefited us a lot because we are no longer wasting time going long distances looking for water," she said.

Another Chinese-owned company, Afrochine, a subsidiary of Tshingshan Holdings, one of the world's largest stainless steel producers, has embarked on several CSR initiatives that include the drilling of boreholes and the provision of personal protective equipment to frontline workers.

Apart from its CSR initiatives, Afrochine is also expected to create 4,000 employment opportunities for locals through its investments in a new carbon steel plant currently under construction.

"This investment will create 4,000 direct jobs. However, there are massive opportunities for upstream and downstream jobs and we estimate that up to 10,000 people will benefit in terms of different levels of employment opportunities," Benson Xu, the company's general manager, was recently quoted by the Herald Newspaper. "Indeed, we also have a comprehensive CSR program that will ensure that the community will benefit directly from the resources being exploited in the areas."

Through its charitable arm, Kubatana Afrochine Trust, the company has also provided skincare products to people living with albinism and has also provided donations to the elderly.

Other Chinese companies such as Sunny Yifeng, a tile manufacturing company, are involved in efforts made for the betterment of society, including donations to local schools. Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe through the Chinese Business Association are also involved in various charity initiatives across the country.

SKILLS TRANSFER

In Mutoko, Mashonaland East province, Chinese investments in the granite mining industry are helping transform communities through skills transfer and employment creation.

Robert Machinga, a 24-year-old man who works at a Chinese-owned granite mining company, said before Chinese investments flooded the area, granite rocks in the area were largely an unexploited resource that had no economic value to locals.

"We used to see these rocks and we had no idea that they were wealth, but with the coming of Chinese investors who brought jobs, we can see that our lives are changing. We are now taking care of our families, getting money, buying food and meeting other needs," he said.

While saying that Chinese investment in local quarries has brought employment in the area where economic activity was mainly subsistence farming, Machinga believed the Chinese-owned companies in the area are positively impacting local communities through their skills transfer initiatives.

"With the opening of companies in this area, so many things have changed, speaking of myself, I gained skills to operate machinery, many people can now fend for their families, unlike previously when you would wake up and spend the day seated at home. So many things have changed, some are building houses, some are buying farming inputs," he added.

Prior to joining the company, Machinga had never acquired any technical skills. Currently, he is one of several young men who have joined the company and have undergone a trainee program to operate the machinery used at the site.

Chinese corporations are also helping transform livelihoods in the agriculture sector.

Debont Corp., an agriculture machinery and solutions supplier, is also aiming to bridge Zimbabwe's technology gap in the agriculture sector through technical skills transfer. The company is also engaged in educating local farmers and students on how to increase productivity through new technologies.

In Zimbabwe, Debont is currently running the China-Aid Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (CATDC) at Gwebi College of Agriculture near Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

CATDC was established in 2011 through the China Aid program focusing on farmer training and technical skills transfer, and over the past 10 years, CATDC has provided training courses to more than 3,000 Zimbabwean students.

FIGHTING THE PANDEMIC

Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe have also thrown their weight in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before a single case of COVID-19 was detected in Zimbabwe, Chinese business enterprises, working under the guidance and coordination of the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe, mobilized funds and upgraded Wilkins Hospital in Harare. The hospital had been mandated to treat COVID-19 patients from across the country but dilapidated infrastructure could not permit the smooth flow of operations.

As part of efforts to strengthen Zimbabwe's capacity to handle COVID-19 patients, the Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe mobilized resources amounting to 500,000 U.S. dollars to revamp the hospital. The renovations were done in a record time of 10 days and were finished just before the country reported its first confirmed case of the virus on March 20, 2020.

In July 2020, a newly established state-of-the-art COVID-19 treatment center officially opened, with funding by Chinese firms operating in the country. Three Chinese firms teamed up with a local private medical institution to establish the facility in the capital of Harare.

The local partner, Health Point, is providing medical expertise while the Chinese firms are providing medical equipment and funding. The medical facility, named Health Point Upper East Medical Center, has a capacity to accommodate 50 COVID-19 patients at a time.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has lauded the Chinese community and companies in Zimbabwe for donating medical supplies and providing technical support to Zimbabwe's frontline personnel.