African development gets Chinese push

At a factory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, workers in blue uniforms meticulously assemble vehicles, while another team maneuver around 300 sport utility vehicles and sedans into a staging area.

These cars, manufactured at Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive Group Co's plant, will be delivered to its customer, South African Airways, and to several dealerships in Pretoria within a week.

These cars testify to the inroads Chinese companies are making in the auto market across Africa, from Ghana to Ethiopia, Morocco to South Africa, said Chang Rui, BAIC's vice-president.

With light truck and shoe factories established in Ethiopia, a giant photovoltaic plant generating clean energy in Kenya, and manufacturing facilities producing electronic components, building materials, clothing fabrics, daily necessities and food processing goods in Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania, Chinese manufacturers are steadily building a solid reputation in Africa for products and services that are not only affordable, but also easily serviceable.

Chinese companies in Africa have traditionally made their mark through large-scale infrastructure and energy projects, said Yao Guimei, a researcher at the China-Africa Institute, which is part of the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"However, as the region embarks on a new phase of development, they have shifted their approach by investing more in modern manufacturing and service-related businesses over the past decade," said Yao, adding these moves have effectively supported international production capacity cooperation and created new jobs in host countries.

For instance, the establishment of BAIC's South Africa factory has not only boosted the development of the South African automotive industry and offered consumers more choices, but also involved over 150 local small and medium-sized enterprises in the process, according to information released by BAIC.

It has created more than 3,000 jobs across the upstream and downstream industry chains and trained a group of professionals and managers.