[People’s Daily] “Chinese enterprise changes our life” --- Visiting Hengshun Zhongsheng Industrial Park in Indonesia

Staffs from Indonesia and China attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the power plant.

The blast furnace is under construction.

The foundation stone laying ceremony of the power plant of Hengshun Zhongsheng Sulawesi industrial park was held in Morowali of Indonesia recently. As an important project under cooperation on production capacity between Indonesia and China, industrial park can not only provide job opportunities, promoting economic development, but also speed up the transformation of economic structure in Indonesia. The model of building industrial parks to realize cooperation in production capacity provides useful experiences for Chinese enterprises to go abroad.      

Cooperating on production capacity to promote industrial development

Jia Xiaoyu, president of Indonesia subsidiary of Hengshun Zhongsheng, told that, relying on the rich ferronickel resource and fine natural harbors, adopting Chinese advanced smelting technology, the first phase of the project take high-efficient smelting furnace and ferronickel production by electric furnace smelting in RKEF as main line of development. A large-scale coal-fired power plant would also be installed. The first phase project of the industrial park, with characteristics of high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection, will be completed in 28 months. At that time, there will be 2 65MW coal-fired power-generation units, 4 advanced RKEF production lines and several blast furnaces running in this industrial park. The annual output will be 300,000 tons. The second phase of the project will take stainless steel and related down stream industries as main line of development, driving other industrial development in local.

Wang Liping, minister counselor for economic and commercial affairs at the Chinese embassy to Indonesia pointed in his speech that the project of Sulawesi Industrial Park of Ferronickle invested and constructed by Hengshun Zhongsheng is an important project under cooperation on production capacity between Indonesia and China. It will bring outstanding Chinese and Indonesia enterprises in this industrial park, forming a complete upstream and downstream industry chain and infrastructures, significantly increasing financial and tax revenue in Indonesia, providing more job opportunities for local people, improving the infrastructure construction and overall level of industrialization of Indonesia.

Our reprter on the spot felt the hot atmosphere in the construction site. In the early morning, earth-moving trucks shuttled back and forth and workers devoted themselves to their work, showing a faction of the busy scene. After nightfall, lights were still burning on the construction site. The embryonic form of the blast furnace under construction is clearly visible. The ground on which the power plant will be established had been well prepared. Zhang Zhenbo, vice president and general director of the construction of industrial park, told reporter that they were stepping up their work to promote all projects. The blast furnace under construction according to the plan will come into use by the end of this year. The first phase of power plant will generate power next March.

Increasing employment and promoting the construction of infrastructures

In January,2014, Indonesian government imposed a ban on ore exports in order to raise added value of the exported resource products. Chinese government adapted to and supported this policy adjustment in time. On the basis of Agreement with Regard to Cooperation on Comprehensive Industrial Park between Indonesia and China made between the two governments in 2013, enterprises of the two countries were encouraged to invest and construct smelting factories and comprehensive industrial parks in Indonesia, so as to promoting the construction of infrastructures and development of industrialization in Indonesia. A large number of Chinese enterprises including Hengshun Zhongsheng actively respond to the call of the two governments and construct smelting factories and industrial parks here.

Morowali subprefect S. U. Marunduh spoke highly of this way of investment by constructing industrial parks when accepting our reporter to interview. He praised that it played an active role in local economic development, helping to speed up transformation of local economic structure(from relying on agriculture and fishery to developing industrial economy), raising income level of local people.

A. U. Syah， Se.， MM.， M. Si, secretary of Bureau of Commerce , Morowali, told reporter Chinese enterprises were the first foreign investors to come to Morowali and help develop the local resources. Chinese enterprises coming to Morowali promoted local economic development, providing job opportunities for local people, changing their lives. Some trainings provided by the enterprises also have changed local economy and society.

Cooperation between the two countries enjoying great potentials

As a pioneer of achieving cooperation on production capacity between Indonesia and China, Hengshun Zhongsheng, in constructing industrial parks, have overcome many difficulties and have been moving forward with persistent efforts.

Chinese workers ran into some trouble in work due largely to not knowing the Indonesian conditions and local customs shortly after they arrived here, according to Zhang Zhenbo. For example, 99% local people are Muslims so that there are culture barriers among workers from the two countries because Chinese workers did not know the local customs well at the beginning. On realizing the real problem, they adjusted themselves to the local customs. There had been one road shared between the industrial park and the local village previously, and then another road was built for the village by the project to avoid inconvenience that might be caused by sharing the only road. Workers also taught the local people how to grasp construction technologies.

Lin Zhongwei, a front-line worker who manages the warehouses and logistics on the construction site, told our reporter that the industrial park was located in the mountains so that you must arrive here along a long bumpy road. When first arriving here, Lin usually got a ride to head out of the village for purchasing things for daily use. They departed at 7 in the morning and came back at 4 in the afternoon. Then, they work with the locals, in that workers buy vegetables from the local people who plant them, which not only bring convenience for people in the industrial park, but also increase income for local people. With the poor transportation and telecommunication conditions here, it even takes 5 hours to take a ride by mountain road to the nearest airport. When the signal is weak, workers can contact with their families only once in a fortnight. At that time, workers would entrust their mobile phones to people who will go to the town to receive short messages in the place where the signal is better.

Wang Liping expressed that the industrial park model is an updated version for Chinese enterprises to go abroad. Chinese enterprises have advantages in capital, technology and talents, while Indonesia is rich in resources but poor in infrastructures. Therefore, cooperation between the two countries enjoys great potentials. The industrial park model significantly helps to improve the local employment and promote economic development. In the meantime, it places greater demands on Chinese enterprises, for example, they should have strong financial strength and rich management experience. Meanwhile, we should also be aware of the risk existing in the industrial park model. The model of developing upstream and downstream industry chain requires rich management experience. Chinese enterprises which intend to invest projects in Indonesia should take a full survey on the local investment environment and study the feasibility of this investment.

(JAKARTA, Nov. 12, 2015 / People’s Daily /) 2015.9.25

Source: People’s Daily, Nov. 13, 2015, page 21