An entry in the good books

Know-how sold at a skimpy profit to set up vocational schools

Giving and expecting nothing in return is a common definition of a good deed. Even if AVIC International Holding Corporation of Beijing does not quite live up to that standard, it reckons that what it wants in return for what it gives is enough to warrant its inclusion in anyone's good books.

In exchange for what AVIC says is a skimpy profit, it is modernizing technical schools in Kenya to enable the country's youth to obtain vocational skills that will make them more marketable and globally competitive.

"It is not charity, but we do not aim to make big money out of it, either," says Liu Jun, vice-president of AVIC International, a business empire with its roots in aviation and whose reach now stretches into other areas, including engineering, real estate and financial services.

"We only charge to make it a sustainable project, so that more people can benefit from it," Liu says.

The company handed over 10 vocational schools to Kenya in January, assisting Kenya secure funds from Chinese banks, providing equipment and helping train local teachers, and it plans to modernize more vocational schools in a similar way.

The project is called Go Beyond Commerce, says Liu, whose company is also building the new Terminal Four at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. "Go Beyond Commerce's profit margin is low compared with other mega projects we have in Africa, but we want to get more involved in projects that have great and long-lasting influence on people's lives."

Liu, sitting in his Beijing office decorated with African woodcarvings and photos of African wildlife, says: "After years of doing business in Africa, we want to do something that can benefit the local community in the long run because we want to establish ourselves as a global company, which means we need to shoulder more social responsibilities in each market we enter."

The vocational schools in Kenya are such a project for AVIC International because they provide Kenya with what it needs most: skilled workers

Although Kenya is the biggest and most advanced economy in eastern and central Africa, it remains a developing economy, with about half of its 41.6 million people living in poverty. The country's agricultural sector, which employs about 75 percent of the workforce, accounted for 28 percent of Kenya's GDP in 2011, while industry and manufacturing accounted for just 16 percent, says the World Bank.

Moreover, Kenya has announced its new development blueprint, Kenya Vision 2030, which aims to transform the country into a rapidly industrializing middle-income country by 2030.

"To reach the goal, training of a great number of skilled workers is important because the country has almost no manufacturing base," Liu says.

With the 10 schools AVIC International is commissioned to design and build, every year as many as 11,000 tradespeople or mechanics can be trained who can contribute to the development of the country's sugar, agricultural machinery and vehicle maintenance industries.

"People say the 10 schools practically make the largest manufacturing center in East Africa," says Qian Rong, vice-president of AVIC-INTL Project Engineering Company, who is in charge of the vocational training project in Africa. "Many vocational schools there have no equipment for students to practice on and they can only learn theories from the blackboard."

Modernizing another 44 schools in Kenya is expected to start in the second half of this year, Qian says.

"Apart from Kenya, we've also signed contracts with Ghana for 25 vocational schools. Uganda is also interested in this project."

These countries are rich in natural resources but have poor manufacturing ability, he says.

"If they have skilled workers, they can gradually build up a manufacturing base and drive their countries to become industrial-based economies, just like China did several decades ago," says Qian, who has overseen projects in Africa for AVIC International since 1997.

Though competition is fierce and the vocational training market has many players from developed countries such as the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea, AVIC International is confident about its own abilities.

The company offers total-solution services, including assisting to secure funding for the schools, supplying and installing equipment, training students and teachers and even drafting the curriculum.

About two dozen Kenyan teachers have trained in China for six months in the use of equipment, and a group of 30 Chinese maintenance workers flew to Kenya earlier to install machines and to give on-site instruction to teachers about operation and maintenance. The machines are still being fine-tuned, and the schools are expected to enroll students in the second half of this year.

Chinese know-how is particularly appropriate for Africa because both China and Africa are developing economies, AVIC says.

"Equipment from developed countries is more automated and more expensive, and labor costs in those countries are a lot higher than in China," Qian says. "With the economic situation in Africa, China's equipment and the whole vocational training system is more practical compared with that of Western countries."

AVIC International's vocational training team has six full-time employees, but the company plans to enlarge it. It is considering hiring more experts specialized in vocational education in China and bringing the project to the whole of Africa.

"We donated money before and we did some charity work, such as sponsoring student soccer teams," Liu says. "But those were one-off projects that were unsustainable in the long term and could not have a substantial impact on people's lives."

Vocational schooling is not the only project that AVIC International runs to improve people's lives in Africa.

The company equipped Zambia with nine mobile hospitals in 2011 to service poor people in the county's remote areas.

"They are hospitals on wheels," says Liu, adding that only a few cities in Zambia have hospitals. "We not only provide medicine and vehicles that can be turned into mini-hospitals, but also bring doctors from China to work with local doctors so they can gain skills."

Each of the nine hospitals is equipped with seven mobile hospitals, four Chinese doctors and about 20 local doctors and other medical staff. Their service in remote areas covers about 60 percent of the country's population.

The mobile hospitals treated about 210,000 patients and performed 13,000 surgeries by the end of last year.

"We expect to expand the mobile hospital service to 16 countries in Africa this year," Liu says, adding that he is sure AVIC International will be involved in more projects that focus on people's lives.

"Companies cannot live without doing business. But we hope that in Africa we can do more than just business."

Sun Yuanqing contributed to the story.

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn