Changing the mold

Young manager makes a name for herself as head of the Ethiopian operation of a major Chinese engineering company

Bu Hechun is an exception to some long-accepted rules. For a start, she is working in civil engineering, historically dominated by men.

At just 27, the manager is very young, in a sector in which it traditionally takes years to work up through the ranks.

And the animation graduate is not working in the profession from which she qualified in 2010.

But remarkably, against that backdrop, Bu has just helped win three contracts worth nearly $ 1 billion for her company China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd - just two years after arriving to become national representative for the firm in Ethiopia.

"I think they have accepted me here in Ethiopia," she says modestly.

"The company has successfully expanded its portfolio here, and I am sure that a combination of our professional spirit and my own negotiation skills have helped."

"As we win contracts in Ethiopia and deliver them, more will come. We are becoming very familiar with how negotiations are handled here."

Bu's latest win, for power transmission systems on Ethiopia's Genale-Dawa hydro-power station, which is owned by the government's Electric Power Corporation, is worth $250 million.

She says the project is expected to take a year and a half to complete, and she is already negotiating with the authority to win a further World Bank-funded project to upgrade power substations in the country's capital, Addis Ababa, worth another $20 million.

Since 2007, China CAMC has completed three transformer, power transmission line and substation installation projects, which she says has helped the company create a "firm footing in Ethiopia".

More power transmission and substation projects are in the pipeline, too, she says.

As a landlocked, mountainous country, transport and logistics within Ethiopia can be challenging, especially on large engineering projects.

"Various complicated risks have to be considered, to complete projects within what can sometimes be a short period of time," Bu says.

China CAMC was created in 2001 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2006.

It now has offices in Sudan, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Chad, Zambia and Ethiopia, in addition to its overseas presence in Asia, South America and North America and Europe.

Worldwide, it has built cement plants, glass factories, brick-making plants, textile mills, irrigation systems and sugar mills.

"I am proud of our long list of projects around the world, and this gives me great confidence during any negotiations we have conducted here," adds Bu.

Its largest Ethiopian project has been the Welkait Sugar Mill worth $647 million. China's state-owned Export-Import Bank lent $500 million to the project, one of 10 sugar factories planned under the Ethiopian government's five-year Growth and Transformation Plan.

Located in a mountainous area, 1,200 km north and three days travel from the capital, in Tigrai region, the Welkait factory is run by the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, and CAMC is building the plant, its own power station and affiliated irrigation systems.

The rest of the project works, including the construction of dams, is the responsibility of Ethiopia's Metals Engineering Corporation.

"We are ready to start building the mill, once the Chinese government approves the loan," Bu says.

Once the three-year project is completed, the plant will be able to crush 24,000 tons of sugarcane a year and produce 484,000 tons of sugar.

"This will mainly be used for export, earning Ethiopia much-needed foreign currency," says Bu.

She adds the overall project will also see some 50,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation developed, creating much-needed jobs for the area.

Bu says the plant's main waste product, the crushed sugar cane, will be used to feed local goats and cows.

"With the sugar mill at its core, a whole new industry chain is being created, bringing great benefits to local people," she says.

With local per capita GDP at just $500, she says the Ethiopian government has been a strong supporter in creating jobs.

When Bu graduated from northeastern China's Harbin Institute of Technology, she initially had three career choices: staying at the institute to earn a master's, furthering her education in the US, or accepting a one-year internship and training contract with the international brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.

"I decided to abandon a career in animation, as I did not want to focus on a computer screen everyday, and so I chose the beer company," which had been impressed by her outstanding academic record.

"But I decided to move careers again after that year, as I knew that sector didn't really suit me either."

In the summer of 2011 she landed a position with China CAMC and in November that year was appointed as a marketing and translation assistant on a power transmission project in Kenya.

"Those early days were challenging for me," Bu says, none more so than the fact that she and another colleague were the only women onsite.

She very quickly mastered the basics of on-site engineering management, and learned a lot about Africa.

"I admit, wild animals were my dominant images before I set foot on this continent," she smiles.

"But those early days changed me because I started to realize this is a poor continent, and our help can really change it for better."

After completing her initial contract in Kenya, she applied to stay in Africa and was sent to Ethiopia.

Her willingness to embrace African and Ethiopian culture helped her earn friendships and respect, and has been crucial to growing the company's business in the country.

"Ethiopians and Chinese have a lot in common in culture and personality," she says.

"For example, Ethiopians like hospitality. Every time I am invited to an Ethiopian friend's home, I am served food until I can't eat any more, just like being entertained at home.

"In business too, you often have to read between the lines to fully understand the meaning, which is very similar to Chinese.

"We both like to express ourselves in an indirect way, instead of being straightforward."

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/29/2014 page19)