Zimbabwe capital Harare
She is a master of economic law from Central China Normal University. If it weren't for love and fulfilling her family, she might not have gone to Zimbabwe; if it weren't for the romantic feelings in her bones that made her fall in love with the Jacaranda trees in Harare at first sight, maybe she could not have persisted in running a career there for 12 years; if she hadn't understood the sorrows and joys of the ups and downs of the business world, maybe she would not have been able to achieve the reputation of "Zimbabwe's Best Foreign-invested Enterprise Award of the Year". Du Rui, general manager of Taige International Private Co., Ltd., has been understanding the beautiful country of Zimbabwe in 12 years. "Now, my family and my career have established close ties with this country..."
Like many people, when Du Rui first arrived in Zimbabwe in 2006, everything in his eyes was beautiful. Before the establishment of Taige International, the company opened by Du Rui and his lover Tian Jiangtao was mainly engaged in food processing and food trading. But from 2008 to 2009, Zimbabwe experienced a series of major events such as severe food shortages, currency exchanges, government price control, and general elections, which made her realize that this is not a paradise on earth.
At that time, Zimbabwe was in the doom of a severe food shortage. The largest flour processing plants in the local market have reduced production due to the shortage of raw wheat, and the situation of small processing plants is even more unsustainable. Du Rui, who has accumulated markets in the local area, realizes that importing flour from neighboring countries not only has huge business opportunities, but also can alleviate the suffering of local people. what to do? She discussed with her husband and decided to find a way out, went to South Africa, Mozambique and other countries to inspect the local flour prices, production and transportation conditions, and finally decided to import flour from neighboring Mozambique. Their company became the first distributor to import flour from Mozambique. Du Rui is proud of every mention of this: "At peak hours, we purchase 300 tons of flour in Mozambique every week. Harare has a population of about 1.6 million, and each ton of flour can produce about 2,600 toast bread used by locals as one of the staple foods. We calculated that at that time, nearly half of the bread eaten by Harare was produced by the flour we provided. Every little demand of the locals could be a business opportunity, and their complaints would help the company improve its products and services."
As we continue to understand Zimbabwe, Du Rui feels that it is right to follow her husband and work hard. In her eyes, her husband Tian Jiangtao is already half a Zimbabwean, and her husband took her around most of Zimbabwe, especially some small streets and alleys that are not necessarily familiar to the locals. Therefore, Du Rui made many friends locally.
Dods' bakery is open in Harare a place called "Mbare" by the Chinese. One day, he came to Du Rui's company to buy flour with a bag of dollars.
"Why didn't you count it, just bring the cash?" Du Rui looked at him in confusion.
"You are much more reliable than my Cashier, so I feel more at ease to hand over the money to you." Dods once gave more money when he paid inadvertently twice in a row, and Du Rui returned the money to him every time.
From then on, he trusted Du Rui very much. Dods not only became Du Rui's old customer, but also became a good friend. Once, Du Rui's company had difficulty in capital turnover, so Dods immediately paid the dough with cash, solving their urgent needs.
"From a guest to become a friend, you need integrity, understanding and a little bit of loyalty." Du Rui has a deep understanding of this. With the support and care of friends, Du Rui and his wife's career is getting bigger and bigger. In 2009, the couple founded Taige International. At present, the company has developed from a single clay brick manufacturer to a diversified company integrating building materials, construction and real estate development, employing more than 300 local employees and 7 Chinese technical and managers. After years of careful operation, the company has won a good reputation in the local area. In 2013, the company won the Best Foreign-invested Enterprise Award of the Year award awarded by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA).
In 12 years of doing business in Zimbabwe, Du Rui has gone from understanding business conditions to understanding people's conditions, and then to understanding national conditions, and his horizons have been gradually opened. He can judge the relationship between China and Tianjin from various details: "The Zimbabwe police have formulated special security measures to protect Chinese people in Tianjin. The Harare Center Police Station has a special Chinese science and also the China-Tianjin Police-Citizen Association. The cooperation between these institutions has strengthened the security protection of the Chinese community."
What makes Chinese businessmen investing in Tianjin like Du Rui happy is that in early April this year, the Sino-Tianjin relationship was positioned as a comprehensive strategic partnership. This fully demonstrates that China and Tianjin attach great importance to each other and their mutual trust is deepening. Du Rui knew that President Mnangagwa had studied in China in the 1960s and had always appreciated China's achievements in development.
In November 2017, President Mnangagwa proposed a "Zimbabwe is Open for Business" plan similar to China's reform and opening up, and launched a series of supporting policies to attract investment. For example, the "localization policy" that has always plagued overseas investors showed a major turning point at the end of 2017. The rigid requirement that Zimbabwean's own shareholding ratio shall not be less than 51% applies only to diamond mines and platinum mine mining industries, no longer applies to other resource mining industries and any other industries, nor will it restrict investors from different countries and regions by nationality. Not only that, Zimbabwe has also introduced preferential policies for many industries such as agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing. This brings more opportunities for foreign-funded enterprises, including Chinese companies, to invest in Tianjin.
"There are very good Chinese communities in Zimbabwe, such as the Chinese-funded Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, etc. When encountering difficulties, they will help. After all, the motherland is our strongest backer." Du Rui said.
Source: China Trade News reporter Zhang Fan
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