CCTV News:"Strive to reach 15,000 employees in Aetna (Ethiopia) by the end of 2019." Qian Anhua, chairman of Antai Group, has set the goal of starting a business this year. This textile enterprise from Zhejiang, China, has been planning to invest in Ethiopia since the second half of 2017. It plans to invest 200 million US dollars in three phases to establish a complete production base from fabric production to garment processing in Adama, 80 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
In October 2018, Antai Ethiopian Branch successfully completed the opening ceremony in Adama Industrial Park, overcoming many difficulties and successfully put into production. On December 30, 2018, the first box export ceremony of Antai Ethiopia Branch ended perfectly, becoming the first foreign-funded enterprise in Adama Industrial Park to realize foreign exchange earning through export. At present, Aetna Ethiopian Branch covers an area of 140,000 square meters, including a factory area of over 80,000 square meters and more than 3,000 employees.
From February to August, 2018, Antai Ethiopia Branch sent 100 Ethiopian college students to Antai Headquarters in Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province for skills training. After a year’s hard work, most trainees have gradually taken up management positions and become the local backbone of the company in Ethiopia.
Since Antai Ethiopian Branch officially settled in Adama Industrial Park in September 2018, it has recruited about 1,500 people from surrounding villages to help the local government solve the re-employment problem of relocated farmers in the industrial park. Local farmers have started their career transformation from unemployment to employment. After one year’s vocational training, employees’ concept of survival and life has also changed, from being lazy and uninhibited, taking time off at will to going to work on time, helping each other and being friendly, and they have become the new model of Ethiopia.
There is no public transportation in the local area, and some employees walk 5 kilometers to work. In order to encourage and promote employment, Aetna Ethiopia Company invested in renting buses to pick up employees and solve the problem of workers’ difficulties in going to work.
Due to the backward infrastructure in local rural areas, most families use donkeys or manpower to transport water from water sources 5-10 kilometers away. In order to solve the problem of drinking water for employees, they buy drinking water from the market for employees to drink, becoming the first company in Adama to solve the safety of drinking water for employees. In March 2019, when the rainy season came, the company distributed raincoats to every employee free of charge, caring for every detail, and putting every employee in the heart, hoping that they would be proud "Antai people".
This international and humanized management mode has been strongly commended by Adama Municipal Government.
"Knowing is the beginning of doing, and doing is the achievement of knowing." Antai Textile settled in Ethiopia and became a real map of the "Belt and Road" construction.