Beware of Chinese and other foreign invasions

[Go Back to Articles list] [Give your comments] [Newtimes website]

Newtimes Newsletter

Article of the month – May 2008

Beware of Chinese and other foreign invasions

Editorial Comment: The Kenyan Parliament has recently formed a committee to look into consumer exploitation through sub-standard goods imported from china and elsewhere. Could it be in response or just coincidental to this article which was published recently? You are invited to find out and then form your own opinion.

Written by Mwangi Wanjumbi

Chinese President, Hu Jintao

While attending a recent British Council leadership presentation at The Stanley Hotel, we were taken aback by the experience of Botswana.

As explained by one of the participants, China has infiltrated the country right deep into the villages. Understandably, they have displaced all the locals from their small businesses. They have even gone ahead and flooded the country with mass produced substandard products, an issue that worries Kenyan visitors to that country.

Probably, they imagine that the same fate could befall our own country. This information almost diverted attention from the topic of the day whose theme was; “Does China need Africa?”

But, responding to the comment the main presenter from the Investments Promotion Authority assured the attentive listeners that Kenya has a way of controlling inflow of foreign investments in the country and cannot be subject to that kind of permeation. In other words, there can be no such magnitude of influx of Chinese merchants as in the case of Botswana.

This could be true to some extent especially if the rule that foreign investors are precluded from owning more than 30 per cent investment in Kenya is strictly observed. It is even better if it is true that they are further not allowed to engage in businesses that can be capably handled by locals.

The presenter further re-assured the attentive listeners that Kenya is lucky to have the standards of imported and locally manufactured products controlled by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), a government institution.

But, is KEBS efficient enough to handle the influx of counterfeit goods which are all over the country, especially being marketed through hawkers? It appears that more regulations need to be put in place to control those products which in a big way have affected our local industrialisation process.

It can be remembered that immediately after the unstructured liberalisation of the Kenyan economy in the 1990’s, many industries especially the textiles closed down almost in one swoop.

The effect of these closures trickled down to farming particularly of cotton and other products feeding these industries. Several thousands jobs were lost — some for ever, a situation that seriously contributed to weakening of social structures through escalation of poverty levels.

Fortunately, we can now see some signs of re-incarnation of some of the industries though from very humble beginnings.

Meanwhile, there is a lot to borrow from the Chinese for our own advancements. This is a country with a population of 1.3 billion which is a sizeable proportion of the world population. This country has virtually dumped communism where every thing was Government-owned therefore edging towards free market economy.

Private investments are now taking shape in this giant country. Apparently, we should not be left behind in positioning ourselves in the new developments. The huge population offers good opportunities of export market for our coffee and interestingly fish products as we learnt in the presentation.

There are also invaluable opportunities in the service industry especially tourism, coaching in English and Kiswahili particularly for those who would be fast enough to move into this massive country.

Our country will on the other hand benefit from huge technology transfer especially in building of roads and other infrastructural facilities. If it is true that our contractors are not meeting demand for their services nationally, then we don’t need to go far. The Chinese are known to be not only highly skilled but also highly technologically up to date.

This is especially so given the infusion of technology from the western based manufacturing companies keen to take advantage of the cheap labour available in this giant country. Indeed, all western companies dealing in telecommunications, information technology, electronics and many more are well positioned in China. It appears that china is now more preferable compared to Malaysia a few years ago.

These may be good signs for us because once the labour resource is exhausted in China; the next destination will be Africa. We can brace for relocation of these multinational manufacturing companies into our country sometimes in the future.

Hopefully, the cost of labour, a resource that is the main preference will not have sky rocked, therefore discouraging those investors. But whatever the case, our investment policies must continually be upheld to avoid situations where our own businesses are rendered irrelevant by foreigners. Apparently did the Government have to sign off majority shareholding of Telkom Kenya to foreigners to the tune of 51 per cent?

Whereas, there was nothing wrong in inviting a strategic partner in the privatisation arrangement, leaving such a national asset to foreigners is dangerous.

They might even decide to divest from locations like North Eastern Province for example which may seemingly not be strategically useful for business, thus isolating it from the rest of the country.

Any investment policies that the Government makes should be for posterity and not short-term monetary benefits no matter how attractive. Why Should Telkom Kenya’s case not have been treated like that of Kenya Airways or even Safaricom where the foreign partners got 26 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, yet the two are functioning properly?

My point is this: Our country and industries must be safeguarded from foreign domination at whatever cost. It does not matter whether it is Chinese, French or any others for that matter.

The writer is a management/entrepreneurship Trainer and Strategist based in Nairobi.
Contacts: www.newtimesconsultants.com

Thought For the Month – May 2008

The recently called bonding session of our political leaders could not have come at a better time. Listening to the highly combative communication that comes from either side of the divide, you would wonder how a meeting meant to strategize on national issues would successfully be held under the prevailing situation. In fact you could be forgiven for being at a loss regarding how the newly installed 42 member “national governing” team will spearhead national activities. Will they actually embrace the principles of teamwork and therefore cohesively adhere to unity of purpose and direction? Only time will tell but meanwhile, let us hope and pray that the bonding will bridge the glaring differences of ideas and perceptions. This could possibly safeguard against imminent fallout likely to occur before the elections of 2012.

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“Organizations that do not build capacity of their staff do not have any future in a knowledge based economy in the 21^st Century,” Director of Industrial Training - 24^th April 2008 at the DIT Stakeholders’ Seminar

HOW ELSE CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM US?

We provide Holistic Corporate Training Solutions on Diverse Management areas

Our Flagship program is the innovative Staff Motivation and Capacity Building

This course forms the building block of Our Unique bottoms up staff and Management Development Program

The Next in line in the entwined program include

Supervisory and Management skills Development
Performance and Productivity Management training
Team Building and Management
Managing Change Successively
Strategic thinking and management
Effective leadership skills Development
Effective HR Strategy

OTHERS

Customer Care and Management
Inter- Cultural Communications and Management
Finance For Non - Financial Persons

Any company that goes through our initial 4- 7 consecutive programs will naturally qualify to be a knowledge organization in line with the desired knowledge based economy in the 21^st century

It is only through embracing this fundamental foundation knowledge that a company will be in a position to effectively apply new and continually upcoming management concepts and ideas.

Other Programs include

Staff Pre-retirement and Entrepreneurship Development training
Newtimes SME Practitioner’s Certificate course (Improve your Business Focus)
Business Coaching and Mentoring for SMEs
Strategy Evaluation and Formulation For SMEs
Strategic planning and project financing Linkages for SMEs

What others say

Staff MOTIVATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING
For the longest time I know, majority of staff have always had the impression that the company they are working for should be the one to motivate them. Far from it and I personally write to commend you by the way you clearly put it across our members of staff in the above training. Staff are now more aware that the relationship with the Company is of mutual benefit to both parties. It is evident that within the short period of time since the training, there is change of attitude. Staff now feel they ‘own’ the company and are in full agreement that motivation must come from self. mgonah@cic.com HR CIC Ltd (This was after our very initial training which has subsequently been followed by others)
(Reproduced with full permission of the Author)