In Uganda, large and small foreign companies want to contribute to the fight against the epidemic. This article comes from the WeChat public account: World Saying (ID: globusnews) author: small World children, Editor: Zhang Xibei, from head Figure: courtesy of
Editor’s note: In November last year, a mobile phone assembly plant invested by a Shenzhen company officially opened in the Namanwe Industrial Park in the Mukono region of central Uganda. Uganda President Museveni attended the factory opening ceremony. At the time, they expected Uganda’s factories to be able to operate at full speed within half a year, but no one expected that the new crown epidemic that broke out in 2020 would disrupt all plans.
Since the outbreak in China, the virus gradually spread to Africa and Uganda “closed the country”. The company’s mobile phone assembly plant has not been working properly for two months. In order to help the local response to the epidemic and through the crisis The mobile phone assembly plant that has not yet been fully “onboard” has received a new task: temporarily producing a batch of anti-epidemic materials.
The following is the statement from the general manager of the company, Mr. Zhou:
Our first plant in Africa is in Ethiopia, and Uganda is our second stop.
Uganda was chosen at the time because it was considered that this is a very resilient country with oil reserves and a good climate. In 2017, we sent colleagues to start some meticulous market expansion in Uganda. In 2018, we decided to build a factory and began to apply for land. By 2019, which is the first quarter of last year, the Ugandan government ’s Ministry of Finance is in charge of private The Minister of Investment knew about our project and went to our Ethiopian factory for a field visit, so that our land application was approved.
The Ugandan government has told us again and again that they support us and hope that we should be more serious about investment and that committed investment must be done. So after the government land is put in place, from JulyI started to prepare for the construction of the factory building. By November, we almost completed the first phase of the factory building. At that time, the Ugandan government felt that our actions quickly exceeded their imagination.
At present, the production efficiency of the Uganda plant has reached about two-thirds of our domestic standard production capacity. We are quite satisfied with this figure. Because of the epidemic, the domestic epidemic first, then Uganda also broke out. We There is no normal production for about three months, but Uganda ’s local recruitment is relatively easy, and the workers are quick to get started. At present, the recruitment of workers and the production of factories are similar to what we originally planned, but the epidemic is true. It still has a relatively big impact on our entire business plan.
Fengcheng
Uganda began to seal the country as early as March 25. All sea, land and air gates were closed, and passengers ’entry and exit were stopped. From that time on, personnel could not enter or exit, only logistics could enter and exit.
After the closure of the country, it was the internal closure of the city. In Uganda, all public transportation was suspended, and private cars were not allowed to go on the road, which was equivalent to stopping motor vehicle activities on the road. Of course, if compared with the country, I am afraid that Uganda cannot be regarded as a closed city, because despite the prohibition of cars on the road, most Ugandans choose to walk. In my opinion, there are still many pedestrians on the road.
In terms of the number of diagnoses, Uganda is now the least in all countries in East Africa. It should be said that the government pays more attention to it. After the first diagnosis, they immediately took control measures. At present, the epidemic situation is also well controlled. There are only more than 200 people diagnosed, most of them are truck drivers who come in through the customs. According to the official statement, no local human-to-human cases have been found until now, indicating that the government has good control The government is also confident that it can control the epidemic.
March 26, Kampala, Uganda, local military police disperse crowds on the street to reduce the risk of gathering infections / Internet
However, strict anti-epidemic measures have affected other aspects. For us, the first thing is that our workers are unable to come to work. At present, the number of workers who can walk to work is less than half of the total number. Even if they live close to the factory, they often have to walk for one hour on the road. We have an interpreter to walk more than two hours at a time. More workers are There is no way to go to work.
We will also export some products from Uganda to other countries recently. In case of demand for orders, we urgently summoned some workers who lived nearby and lived on the spot. After the masks were distributed, limited work was resumed, but it was still obviously insufficient. .
Although most workers are unable to go to work, we still paid the local employees as usual in April to ensure their basic lives. This may be a special practice in Uganda. At the same time, we also donated money to the government, donated food, and donated the communication tools we produced, hoping to make some positive contributions to the local anti-epidemic work. Here in Uganda, almost all large and small foreign companies want to contribute to this country.
Internal view of the factory / world talk
We also have colleagues to visit some poor families in the nearby village. He took the video and uploaded it to Douyin. A few days ago, netizens also gathered money to donate something to the villagers. We also added a little money and bought it for the villagers. Something was delivered. The locals here are very friendly to the Chinese. I heard that Ethiopia has misunderstood the Chinese after the outbreak, but Uganda, as far as I know, does not seem to have any prejudice against the Chinese.
Something happened one day later in the epidemic. When we opened the factory door, we found that there were more than 50 young people looking for jobs outside the factory door. During the epidemic, there are still many young people looking for work, because for them, if they do not work, they will lose their income and their source of life.
Mask
In the country of Uganda, there were no local enterprises that produced masks, they were almost incapable of production, and they were completely dependent on imports. Before the outbreak, ordinary medical masks, 50 per box, cost 8,000 Ugandan shillings, which is about 14 yuan. After the outbreak, the price is 50,000 to 60,000, which is more than 100 yuan. Judging from the current situation, even if the mask is reduced in price, its price should be almost 5-6 times before the outbreak.
Uganda ’s local income is relatively low, and most people cannot afford masks. Even after May, the government has issued an order to force the wearing of masks. More than half of pedestrians on the road do not wear masks. If Uganda is nationwide, the maximum number of people who can wear masks is half.
But if we resume production, we must guarantee the supply of masks to our workers.
Workers are making masks (note: the way workers wear masks is a wrong demonstration) / World Says
Under this prejudgment, resumption of work means that we may have to spend a lot of money to buy masks on the market, and can not ensure the quantity and quality of the purchase, then it is better to enter some simple production equipment to meet For the purpose of their own needs, to produce some masks. Therefore, we made such a decision. At that time, in early April, we imported some mask production machines from China and started to produce masks ourselves.
Our current factory employees, when full, are about 160 people, plus more than 180 people in the sales system. The average income is actually not high, about 800 yuan a month. In terms of the cost of masks, local purchases can also be supplied, but it is not possible to change one a day like domestic ones. If it is self-produced, considering that the labor cost in the later process of masks is still a large part, we hope to use Uganda’s relatively low local labor costs, to hedge the logistics cost of our imported masks.