In December 2015, at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the new China-Africa strategic partnership would be upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership. It has put forward ten cooperation plans between China and Africa in the fields of industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, finance, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and people's welfare, public health, humanities, peace and security, which has drawn up a grand blueprint for China-Africa practical cooperation and opened a new chapter in the history of China-Africa relations.
Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, returned to the issue of low-cost housing in a public speech in May: "We want affordable housing to be rolled out across the country with a significant increase in jobs and incomes.". My dream is that in the near future, all middle-income people in Kenya will have a decent house.
Low-cost housing is an important part of Kenyatta's "Four Development Goals" on Kenya's national economic and social development on Independence Day 2017. Its specific content is to build 500,000 low-cost housing units by 2022 to achieve "home ownership".
In 2017, a report released by the World Bank showed that the annual output of housing in Kenya was less than 50,000 units, there was a shortage of more than 2 million units, and nearly 61% of urban households lived in slums. Kenya's urbanization rate of 4.4% equates to half a million new urban dwellers per year, which will exacerbate the country's housing shortage. How can we improve the construction efficiency of housing units, reduce construction costs, and build houses that are both environmentally friendly and affordable? This problem is not only the concern of the Kenyan people and leaders, but also the Chinese enterprises involved in housing construction in the country are actively working with the local people to find solutions in the process of practice.
After investigation and research, Lin Yihua, deputy general manager of China Wuyi Kenya Construction Industrialization Co., Ltd., found that there are limitations in the traditional brick-concrete construction mode adopted in Kenya's urban construction. "We investigated the three regions of Nairobi, Mombasa and Eldoret, and the roads in the main urban areas of the three regions are relatively narrow and can be used." Hundreds of thousands or even millions of square meters of wooden models need to be stacked, hundreds of tons or thousands of tons of steel pipes and scaffolding need to be stacked, and these two problems (traditional construction methods) can not be solved. Moreover, a large number of concrete and cement are transported into and out of the city, and the pollution of dust, sewage, noise and so on is still very serious for the city.
Faced with this situation, China Wuyi Kenya Branch decided to introduce the concept of prefabricated buildings. In 2016, the company invested US $100 million in Nairobi to build a construction industrialization R & D and production base and a warehouse building materials supermarket project. The production base covers an area of 29.6 acres, with a plant area of 18200 square meters and six production lines. In 2017, the six production lines of the production base were all started, and the prefabricated assembly technology was used to integrate the construction links originally completed on the construction site into the factory. The main components of the building, such as beams, columns, interior and exterior walls, can be manufactured in the factory. When building, the prefabricated parts can be transported to the site and assembled according to the design drawings.
Lin Yihua said that compared with the traditional way, prefabricated assembly has many advantages, especially in energy saving and environmental protection. "We mainly put a large number of construction production in the factory building, and then send it to the specific location of the construction site through transportation. The area of temporary land is greatly reduced. Compared with the traditional way, it only accounts for about 1% to 5%.". We carry out production according to the split design work drawing. In the use of steel bars, there are fewer consumables. We use steel moulds on the formwork, and the turnover times can reach more than 2000 times. The traditional wood moulds can only be turned over 3.5 times according to what we have seen in the local area. A lot of our concrete work is done in the factory, and there are water purification and sewage treatment measures in the factory.
The use of steel mould not only improves the utilization rate of materials, but also greatly improves the quality of construction. Lin Yihua said: "Traditional wooden moulds are easy to explode, stick, run and deviate, while we use steel moulds. Common quality problems such as honeycomb and pitted surface basically do not exist, and the construction quality is much better than traditional ones."
Lin Yihua pointed out that at present, the demand for housing and other civil buildings in Kenya is far greater than supply, and prefabricated buildings meet the local demand because of their short construction period and low construction cost. "The investment and construction period of this kind of project, according to tradition, is estimated to be four and a half to five years. If the prefabricated building technology is used, it can be completed in three to four years. Generally speaking, it can save one third of the time," he explained, citing the Central Bank of Kenya Fund Office Building Project, which is currently under construction by enterprises. In other words, the same number of flats can be provided in a shorter period of time to meet the target of the government's housing projects. According to our current cost estimates and its government proposed that the construction cost of low-cost housing is basically matched, from the financing cost, our cost is even lower, our construction period is shorter, it will have a return on investment in a shorter time.
Chinese enterprises have not only brought advanced production methods to Kenya, but also taught the leading production technology to the local people so that they can achieve independent development. Lin Yihua said: "Our original intention of doing this in Kenya is to improve the construction level of the African construction market, train skilled workers for it, and bring out the best things in China through the" the Belt and Road "initiative, not to bring out the things that China has eliminated. At present, we (production base) have provided more than 600 jobs, including about 200 professional and technical workers. If there is low-cost housing, according to the average construction area, as long as we receive a project, it is estimated that it can provide about 2500 jobs.
Pepela Edwin used to be a gardener in Naivasha. In 2014, he joined "China Wuyi" to learn carpentry technology. Now, Edwin has become a team leader in the R & D and production base. He feels that "China Wuyi" has witnessed every step of his growth: "Working here is very helpful to me and can help me improve my ability. At first I did some simple manual work, then I learned carpentry skills, and now I am a group leader. My life has changed a lot. Before I came here, I had no land and no family. Now I have bought land, got married and built a new house. After learning carpentry skills, I can make many things by myself, such as tables and so on, and even my new house is built by myself now. I hope to continue to work here in the future, upgrade my skills more and improve my life. I also want to buy a car.
With the further promotion of localization, Chinese enterprises have brought tangible benefits to more and more local people, and their relationship with them has become more tacit. Lin Yihua has a deep understanding of this point. "When we go to the west, we will build ponds in places where water is relatively scarce; we will build schools in places where the economy is relatively backward; in times of famine, we will provide them with food, living allowances, and fulfill some social responsibilities.". In fact, we have been integrated with the local people, and we do not regard ourselves as a very special foreign-funded enterprise. More than 90% of our employees are local employees, and our employees are localized.
Kenyan real estate experts believe that Kenya's real estate industry is expected to recover this year under the situation of President Kenyatta's vigorous promotion of affordable housing construction. Wang Shuwen, Secretary of the Party Committee of China Wuyi Kenya Regional Company, said that China and Kenya are expected to further strengthen their cooperation in construction industrialization. "We will transfer China's best production capacity and have a better docking with Kenya's production capacity. We believe that we can cooperate with them in Kenya's construction industrialization products for mutual benefit and win-win results.". We also hope that in terms of housing in Kenya, we can do a good job in this project and benefit the Kenyan people.
Machines are roaring in the production base, the production of various prefabricated components is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the completed components are transported out of the factory in batches. On the busy construction site, residential buildings have sprung up one after another, constantly refreshing the city's landscape under the blue sky and white clouds, and drawing a new picture of a better life for the Kenyan people.
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