Harnessing the winds of change

The company is already considering requests from the Ethiopians to offer its wind power technology to local companies, to significantly improve not only its home-grown renewable capability, but also its ability to sell that abroad.

Originally, CGCOC specialized in drilling water wells in African countries, and so far it has built five water supply plants in Ethiopia, four of which are in the suburbs of Addis Ababa.

Financed with loans from both the World Bank and the Chinese government, the new plants have provided water for 3 million Ethiopians.

"Ethiopia is rich in underground water, but it is very deep, often at 500m, and this is very difficult to drill," says Yu Renzhi, who is in charge of CGCOC's water supply projects.

"But we have been able to improve the drilling capabilities of our local partners."

Yu has been in the country since 2005, at a time when water drilling activities were dominated by European or US companies.

Local involvement in every project it completes is crucial, Yu says, at every stage.

"We are keen to train local workers and transfer our drilling skills and construction know-how," he says.

During the building of those five water plants, thousands of local people were employed, and at their peak around 5,000 were working full-time.

Xiao says: "We also want to transfer our management know-how in water supply to local people, and that will continue, as we plan to work on more projects."

He says that with its diverse ownership model, CGCOC has the flexibility to further deepen its cooperation with partners, both in China and Africa.

After arriving in Ethiopia in 2003, with an initial investment of $200,000, CGCOC now employs about 10,000 locally.

Ato Zemedkun Asfaw, human resources manager of its Ethiopia branch, says he and his co-workers have benefited from their Chinese employer's involvement in the country.

He says that over the past decade, China has brought great changes to Ethiopia, much more so than in the years when Western companies dominated much of the activity.

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