The construction industry absorbs the majority of the unskilled and semiskilled in our labour force. It must once again play that key role in our economic recovery programme from the pain caused by the coronavirus. That said, we have to earnestly assess our goals and national interests in as far as the construction industry is concerned.
Whosever idea it was to allow state owned firms from China into our construction sector needs to own up to their imprudence because billions of Pula later , there is nothing to show for it. The fact that we have in the last odd twenty eight years, experimented with doling out billions in major public construction contracts especially for village water reticulation to contractors from China needs to stop, going forward. I understand that just last week, a few more billions were doled out by Water Utilities Corporation to Chinese companies.
Twist and turn as we may, the truth of the matter is that Botswana and China do not really have much in common in as far as their economic goals and national interest are concerned. Botswana on one hand is in the grip of a sharp coronavirus induced economic downturn and as a result, the labour market is not expected to grow in the short term. Our fiscal position is under strain and we have to ensure that we derive good value out of every hard earned Pula spent on infrastructure projects. The country’s priorities therefore are to put the country on a recovery path by creating and supporting conditions for growth and job creation.
The Chinese contractors on the other hand are here on a completely different mission. They are in pursuit of their government’s “go out” policy. I doubt if they are committing similar levels of precious energy on the notion of “come in” for foreigners looking for opportunities in their own backyard. They are not on a friendship tour, contrary to the myths some of their leaders and cheerleaders like to peddle. China’s main goal is to supplant the United States as the world’s top economic and military power and shape the world in its dictatorial image. It already has poor African countries as voting fodder at the United Nations. Consequently UN agencies such as the World Health Organisation are but mere China shills.
A note penned by the then South African Institute of International Affairs research associate Anne Ying Chen in September 2009 to showcase the good that Chinese construction companies do in Botswana unwittingly reveals that the firms neither empower nor facilitate the transfer of skills to locals. Talking about the disaster that is Morupule, she states: “The cooperation between Standard Bank of South Africa and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in financing Morupule B Power station project advances a new model of Chinese involvement in infrastructure development in Botswana that sets an example for the rest of Africa”. To that I can only say, good grief!
She also lets us into the modus operandi of Chinese contractors in Botswana and does not deny that the main vehicle for their foray into our shores is the Chinese state. She indicates that “working for Chinese government projects is the starting point for most Chinese companies to enter the construction market in Botswana”. So the Chinse state has been the tip of the spear in displacing local firms from the industry. Some of the Chinese employees then quit their jobs, set up other on businesses and are subcontracted by the same Chinese state owned firms.
And it is subcontracting that is now being used to push out the few remaining local sub-contractors. As if losing out contracts over time was not enough , they are now routinely asking local contractors to either offer high discounts to the main Chinese contractor at the risk of losing the subcontract altogether . So all the main Chinese contractor needs to do, is cast doubts on the local sub-contractors’ capacity and terminate them. We have to bear in mind that the Chinese firms do not want to work with local contractors in the first place. If they had their way, they would be subcontracting directly from China.
Anne Ying Chin corroborates this when she says that: “It is understandable that the Chinese SOEs prefer to subcontract their projects to smaller Chinese firms because of fewer language and cultural differences. With the established long term relationship between them, there is long standing mutual trust and reliability”.
So Mr President of the Republic, this is untenable. Act!
