Friendship Blossoms on the Belt and Road
Date: 2023-10-17
The past decade has seen fruitful cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Building on their engineering expertise, legions of Chinese builders have undertaken extensive construction projects to help countries and regions involved in the initiative improve their infrastructure and regional connectivity in a bid to promote their social and economic development. During construction, environmental preservation and improvement of local residents' well-being are also highly valued. China Daily shares nine exemplary cases.
Combined efforts of local and Chinese workers pay dividends
On the Jhelum River in northern Pakistan stands the Karot Hydropower Station, the first hydropower project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which was put into commercial operation on June 29, 2022.
From 2015 to last year, thousands of builders from China and Pakistan worked on the project, striving for their shared goal.
Among them, Ren Zhimin, a technological manager for the Karot project, is a second-time participant in overseas hydropower projects.
His team consisted of 2,400 members during peak construction seasons, 78 percent of them local workers. How to train such a localized team to enable them to meet the technological quality standards was one of the challenges he faced.
Years of overseas project management experience gave Ren an edge in cultural integration and the training of local employees.
A key technician in his team, Saqib Khan, 28, who joined the project in 2017, is one of the best associates that Ren has mentored. "Khan is diligent, eager to learn and willing to take on any task," Ren said. "He is willing to see what he has done wrong, is open to criticism and will try and fix any mistake promptly."
Having worked in three positions within five years, namely technology management, supply procurement and quality control, Khan has grown into a versatile specialist who can handle tasks on his own.
Abdul Hafeez, in his late 50s, joined the project in 2015, working with China Three Gorges South Asia Investment as a senior manager responsible for maintaining relations with local governments and communities, as well as on-site labor management.
He said he has a "friendly and comfortable" relationship with his Chinese colleagues, and his closest friend is An Xiaobin from the project's land acquisition and resettlement department at the company.
When the project started in December 2016, a graveyard needed to be relocated for a spillway. An and Hafeez visited the community, communicated with related family members, and negotiated for a compensation mechanism. It took them just over two months to complete the relocation work. That was recognized as a successful case and it was posted on the International Finance Corporation website as an example.（Chinadaily）
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By China Three Gorges Corporation
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