2020-03-12_Beijing_Review

http://www.bjreview.com MARCH 12, 2020 BEIJING REVIEW 37

BUSINESS

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar & Madhusudan Chaubey

Comments to [email protected]

welding but had no professional training that

would enable her to get a job. But two years

ago, a vocational education center estab-

lished by PowerChina in Chikankata, a district

90 km southwest of capital city Lusaka,

began to offer free courses in welding and

other technical skills.

PowerChina is building the 750-mega-

watt Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station

Project in Chikankata and spent $1.45 million

setting up the Sinohydro Training Institute,

which was unveiled by Zambian President

Edgar Lungu in 2017. It offers free vocational

training courses to provide skilled workers

for the hydropower project and generate

talents for local projects in Zambia, Fang Zhi,

Dean of the institute, told Beijing Review.

After the training, Mutempa found her

first stable job as an electric welder at the

hydropower project. So far, the institute has

enrolled 347 students, including 12 women.

Most of them work for the power project

after they complete training. In 2019, four

got scholarships to study in the Yellow River

Conservancy Technical Institute in central

China.

Qualified electric welders are rare in

Zambia and even more rare are women

welders. Working as a welder has trans-

formed Mutempa into a skilled technician.

“I am now economically independent,” the

27-year-old told Beijing Review proudly.

An online stimulus

Florence Muyoma is another technician who

received training at the institute. The 22-year-

old from Choma, the capital of Southern

Province, is an orphan who was brought up by

her uncle. She was working as a salesperson at

her uncle’s shop when she saw the enrollment

advertisement on Facebook and signed up

last year. She trained in engineering survey for

half a year and in January, after her course was

over, was absorbed by the hydropower project.

Mwamba Mwamba from the Township

of Kafue Gorge Upper Hydropower Station

couldn’t afford to go to college and her high

school degree wasn’t enough to get her a

job. The 23-year-old said years of staying

at home sapped her self-confidence and

turned her into an introvert. When she saw

the enrollment notice online, she signed

up immediately. She made friends at the

institute and when the training in engineer-

ing survey ended, found a job at the power

project. “Now I don’t need money from my

parents. And I also contribute to my siblings’

education,” Mwamba told Beijing Review. “In

the future, I want to go to China for further

education.”

Wang Junxin, a lecturer with the School of

Economics and Management of Shandong

Women’s University, said in a family, when a

woman has a stable income, more money

is saved for the children’s education, which

helps the younger generation find better

jobs. “Helping a mother shake off poverty

amounts to rooting out the seeds of poverty

and stopping it from being passed to the

next generation,” Wang told Beijing Review.

So far, PowerChina has created 70,000

jobs overseas with its projects all over the

world. Q

COURTESY PHOTO

COURTESY PHOTO

Dong Latthavongsa, a chef at one of PowerChina’s construction sites based in Vientiane, capital of Laos, takes

DVHOĶHZLWKKHU\HDUROGVRQRQ-XO\

Mwamba Mwamba is a survey engineer in Zambia,
thanks to the free vocational training she received
at the Sinohydro Training Institute