Sino-Zim joint venture bears fruit
SINO-ZIMBABWE Cement Company (Pvt) Ltd, the first joint venture between China and Zimbabwe, has got boosted by the strenuous efforts in indigenisation of its human resources management over the past years.
The company has reported a 9,3 per cent increase in its sales of quality cement in the first nine months this year and raked in a total US$3,11m in foreign exchange, despite the slack domestic market and economic challenges facing the country, according to Mr Derrick Moyo, the company’s general manager for administration.
Mr Moyo told Xinhua in an interview on Friday that the joint venture produced a total of 128,000t of cement during the nine months from January to September, 45,000t of which was exported, an increase of 750 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year.
"Our products were sold in almost all Southern African countries, including Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia, where we have established the stable co-operative relationships with local customers," Mr Moyo said.
Mr Moyo attributed the success to the strenuous efforts the company has made in the past few years in indigenising its human resources.
"At the beginning of the joint venture we had more Chinese than local people in the company, but with the expansion of our production in recent years we have employed more local people who were trained in technical skills in China," Mr Moyo said.
The company now has a staff complement of about 430, of whom only 15 are Chinese who work mainly as technical consultants.
Speaking of the future of the plant, Mr Moyo said, despite the challenges posed by high inflation and increasing costs, his company has put in place measures to survive the current difficulties by expanding its businesses in other fields, such as building materials, in addition to improving the quality of its cement products.
The 25-hectare Sino-Zimbabwe joint venture plant was co-built by China Building-Material Industrial Corporation for Foreign Econo-Technical Co-operation and Zimbabwe’s Industrial Development Corporation in late 1990s. Published under Cement News
