Is ‘Made in Africa’ possible? | Helen Hai | TEDxBeijing

good afternoon ladies and gentlemen it is a great pleasure to be here with all of you today my topic today is food Africa become the next manufacturing floor for the word Africa what do we know about Africa of course we all know where Africa is but how many of us know that actually 54 countries year Africa and if I ask you to give me a few word to talk about Africa what who do you say wall disease corruption and Safari that's the Africa we know from BBC seeing the media but that is not a complete real Africa today I'm going to share with you three stories which is from the other side of the Africa and the potential of it let me start with my real story I came to Ethiopia a year 2011 to set up a shoe factory it took me sermons from deciding investment to actual production in the following six months I doubled the export revenue a Ethiopia in the shoe sector by the end of year one I recruited 2,000 local workers by the end of year two I recruited 4,000 local workers you probably wondering why did you pick Ethiopia in year 2011 Ethiopia ranked 125 in word Bank doing business report why the answer is I did not pick Ethiopia it was Ethiopia who picked us the story started in March 2011 when the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia MELAS had a meeting with Professor Justin Lin Lin phoo the chief economist of the World Bank and the prime minister asked Justin's advice in terms of poverty reduction and economic transformation justing advice came three things number one he said job creation it is the key for poverty reduction secondly he said the fundamental secret for economic transformation in China in the 80s and also Asia for taiga and Japan in the success because they captured the window of opportunity during industrialization relocation and they created millions of jobs that enabled those economy for gem start in the economic transformation and right now China is about to relocate 85 million labor-intensive jobs that's a golden opportunity for Africa now I want to take you for closer look on some numbers back in 1978 the GDP per capita in China is only 154 US dollars which is less than one-third the sub-sahara African countries the economic growth in China has been a miracle in the past 35 years 680 million people has escaped poverty in China according to World Bank the number of the people living under the international poverty line which is one dollar and a quarter day in the world since 1960 didn't decline if we exclude the 680 million people from China and he year 2014 the GDP per capita in China is 7,500 and according for to forecast by 2020 China is going to become a high-income country or does they mean that means China is moving from a labor-intensive economy to a more capitalistic economy all the labor intensive manufacturing jobs have to be relocated out of China in the coming few years exactly like what happened in Japan in the 1960 what happened in Hong Kong Taiwan in the 80s but this wrong'd of relocation is far more complicated because one career was relocating we're talking about 2.3 million jobs and when Japan was relocating in the 60s we are talking about nine point seven million jobs but this wrong China is a nation with 1.3 billion population and Pam percent are currently engaged in manufacturing that's 113 million and out of it 85 our labor intensive jobs where would those jobs to go some people say South Asia but my answer is yes but only a small proportion of it why compared with 1.3 billion population in China Southeast Asia does not have enough population to absorb all the jobs in Vietnam there only 88 million population 14 in cambodian 48 in mama that's why we're seeing the rate of the salary increase in vietnam is even higher in china in the past five years that's why the first time in the history there is this opportunity for africa and that is also the reason the last thing professor justin lin advise the late prime minister as the remedy for african countries he said you need to create a quick success examples because that will bring inspiration leadership confidence to ethiopia and to the continent the prime minister took his advice went to china six months later and invited a group of investors i was among them this is how the story started so it is leadership and vision and willingness to develop who brought manufacturing to ethiopia but what happened afterwards prior the success of this shoe factory ethiopia has a privately owned industrial zone they struggled five years to attract international manufactures become a residence after we created the shoe factory i've been asked by the government to support them on the investment promotion for the first government-owned industrial zone with less than three months without any international advertisement all 22 factory unit we all lease them to in national manufactures from Indian Turkey Bangladesh China oh the word how did we do it success brings success actually is always louder than word we protein invested them in show them the factory they signed the lease immediately and it is because of the success of the 22 factory units he Ethiopian it is the first time in the history of the World Bank they committed to support industrial songs year Africa and in year 2013 word bank gave 250 million u.s. dollars to Ethiopia to develop the second phase of the industrial zone and this success had a such huge snowboarding effect in the whole Africa continent in the past two years the president of Senegal wanted to learn from it last year he built the first industrial zone phase one will be complete early this year I'm confident thousand jobs will be created in West Africa in Senegal and Rwanda Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the middle of Africa nobody believed manufacturing will work leave a long export but then last year this is the first garment a factory in Rwanda doing export they are taking Cotton's from Burundi textiles from Uganda making garments to export to the US market Sri industrialization that make you wrong the small landlocked country to a land linked to country and this is not all the country like Ghana every coast Nigeria Djibouti now industrialization is on top of the government's development agenda so I want to share with you the first thing today there is a industrialization movement the Africa continent already it is started and the second thing I want to share with you is how about doing business in Africa on the ground in reality is it easy is it difficult well first came to Ethiopia I met the Prime Minister and the Minister of Ethiopia they told me Helen you do you hundred percent export all your raw material will be tax-free per year reality it is not the minister or the prime minister sitting at the pot clearing my goose it's a 25 years old junior staff doing that and you ask that person to make a decision he never made before it's not easy I have the brush to brush the shoes they say this is the brush to brush human teeth need to be text of a machine to make a hole in the latest shoes because the shape of it looks like again they said is a legal weapon I cannot even get it cleared into the country what I have to do I have to personally meet the director-general of the tax cut his organization chart understood he has six deputy director generals and I went to meet each of them and why meets them I get the names and the telephone numbers of the next two layer managers below each of them and then I invited all of them to a meeting I prepared a presentation telling them Who am I why I came to the country would have done what am I going to do most importantly the problems I have encountered and afterwards inviting all of them to the production line seeing from the beginning to the end a lot of people ask me why did you take such kind of effort because I want to tell you you have seen a different perspective yeah Africa when you are inside during my first visit in Ethiopia I went to a field trip with the minister to some rural area and we saw some children that suffering from hunger so on behalf of the company I wrote a check of 100 thousand US dollars I gave it to the minister I said please take the money to buy some food for those children you know what happened the minister look at the cheque and he returned it back to me he said Helen I don't want fish from you I want you to teach us how to catch the fish please use this money to buy machinery to come to my country to teach our people how to do manufacturing and another thing also close to my heart well I'm outside Africa I always hear people are saying Africa is not efficient people are lazy but I work closely with the Minister of the industrial we'll have a problem I will call him tell o'clock in the evening he has a very busy schedule the next day he would come to the office several o'clock to meet me yes there are problems in Africa but if the Minister willing to come to the office early then the cleaner as an investor I think that means hopes and that means willingness to change the life way I want to share you today happened in this hotel the share in the hotel a Ethiopia I stayed there during my first visit in Ethiopia after three days I was walking along this beautiful gardens digesting everything I've seen because these are completely compared from the outside and then I suddenly hear some music so it leads me to the hotel bar at the back and then once I'm in this bar I looked around I see a lot of Westerners Americans singing and dancing inside but I couldn't see locals which remind me a personal story thirty years back in Beijing I was 7 years old is the first time my father took me to the capital of the country and because it's my birthday my father wanted to give me a trade he took me to Beijing hotel and at the check-in desk my father asked how much is it per night the reception said 100 US dollars my father immediately said is too expensive we cannot afford it the moment he's taking me to leave the hotel of the lobby as a little young girl I turned my head back and look at the lobby there's a lot of Americans Westerners in the lobby at the moment I thought that is a word does not belong to me but because China's development my life changed dramatically at age of 17 I got a scholarship I went to England for study and B and I become a cine executive in the global top financial institutions before I came to Africa so that moment in Chariton ye Ethiopia what went through my head is outside the big gate of Sheraton there must be a lot of young girls exactly like me 30 years back in their mind inside Sheraton is a completely different word for them it does not belong to them but what they don't know is if their country can find the right path of development like China like the Asian for Tigers their life will change dramatically as a summary I'm a strong believer in Africa I believe in strong leadership sustainable commitment and successful examples I believe Africa is going to become the next manufacturing floor for the world and poverty will not be a destiny and millions of people year Africa will escape poverty thank you all

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 66,990

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, China, Business, Africa

Id: gdPZm_gC0pY

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2016