A Delegation of Botswana’s Mainstream Media Conducted In-depth Visit to F&G BOTSWANA, Boosting China-Botswana Investment and Economic-Trade Cooperation to New Heights

Recently, a delegation from the Northern Regional Enterprise Services Department of Botswana Investment and Trade Center (BITC), led by its Director Mr. Gaorekwe Gaorekwe and Manager Mr. Thanolo Lekoba, along with representatives from 13 mainstream Botswana media outlets (including BTV, Mmegi, Daily News, and Xinhua News Agency’s Botswana Branch), conducted an in-depth visit to F&G BOTSWANA, a subsidiary under Huabao LTD. As a crucial part of Huabao’s global business, F&G BOTSWANA has been providing high-quality raw material production and processing services, and playing a significant role in the Company’s expansion into global markets and enhancement of business scale and market reach. This visit not only offered a close observation of Chinese enterprises’ development practices in Africa, but also aimed to explore upgraded paths for China-Botswana economic and trade cooperation.

Group photo of officials of BITC, journalists from mainstream media, and some key staff of F&G BOTSWANA

Accompanied by Mr. ZHU Huawen, General Manager of F&G BOTSWANA, the delegation delved into the production frontlines, touring core areas such as the fully automated clean workshop, intelligent extraction workshop, and process research laboratory. Mr. ZHU provided a detailed introduction to the development trajectory of F&G BOTSWANA since its establishment in 2007, highlighting its smart manufacturing equipment, quality inspection system that obtained ISO9001 certification, and efficient production lines.

Mr. ZHU Huawen (first on the right) is introducing relevant situations to the delegation

The delegation is visiting workshops, sample display rooms, process rooms, boiler rooms, and other sites successively 

During the exchange session, Mr. ZHU first expressed gratitude to the Botswana government and media journalists for their care and support for Chinese enterprises. He then introduced the development history of F&G BOTSWANA, specifically, since its establishment in 2007, F&G BOTSWANA has overcome challenges such as talent, resource, and supporting industrial chain shortages in Africa. Through technological innovation and lean management, it has become an industry benchmark, with products sold domestically and internationally. In terms of local development contributions, F&G BOTSWANA has created nearly a hundred jobs, alleviated regional employment pressure, contributed to local taxes, and enhanced Botswana’s product export share and international reputation. In terms of talent development, F&G BOTSWANA provides welding, forklift operation, and other multi-domain skill training for local employees, and organizes outstanding employees to visit Huabao’s headquarters for learning exchanges. Through on-site visits and professional courses, F&G BOTSWANA helps employees improve technical management capabilities, deepen their understanding of Chinese culture, promote cultural exchanges, and achieve a 90% localization rate in management, which has enhanced the sense of belonging of employees. Additionally, Mr. ZHU introduced F&G BOTSWANA’s main businesses, core technological advantages, and unique China-Botswana cultural exchange initiatives, such as traditional festival offerings and language-culture exchanges. F&G BOTSWANA has been constantly practicing in promoting China-Botswana economic cooperation.

Mr. ZHU is exchanging ideas with media representatives at the scene.

The delegation highly recognized the achievements and contributions of F&G BOTSWANA in technological strength, employee management, cultural construction, social responsibility, and localization strategy. Both sides had an open exchange on the challenges and opportunities faced by enterprises investing in Botswana. Mr. Gaorekwe, Director of BITC, expressed that the practices of F&G BOTSWANA in promoting local economic development, fulfilling social responsibilities, and facilitating China-Botswana cultural exchanges was remarkable, and he hoped that F&G BOTSWANA could continue to leverage its advantages, encourage more Chinese enterprises to learn from its successful experiences, deepen pragmatic cooperation to attract high-quality resources, and inject new impetus into Botswana’s high-quality economic development. A reporter from Daily News also stated that Botswana needed to actively learn from Chinese enterprises’ advanced technologies, management experiences, and innovative concepts.

Mr. ZHU also shared the challenges faced by F&G BOTSWANA in its localization development, such as difficulties in talent recruitment, inadequate policy adaptation, and the processing of visas, residence, and work permits, so he hoped for government support. Next, F&G BOTSWANA will further deepen strategic collaboration with local governments and enterprises, focus on product technology upgrades and quality improvements, strengthen industrial chain coordination and local talent team building, continuously fulfill its social responsibilities, and work together to build an open, inclusive, mutually beneficial, and win-win cooperation platform, thus pushing China-Botswana economic and trade cooperation to a higher level.

Group photo of Mr. ZHU and media representatives and director of BITC after the exchange

This visit has yielded fruitful results and profound significance. On one hand, it has deepened the collaborative ties between F&G BOTSWANA and government departments such as BITC, opening up channels for resource and information sharing between governments and enterprises. On the other hand, it has built an important platform for displaying the image of Chinese enterprises through Botswana’s mainstream media, vividly establishing a model of Chinese enterprises taking root in Botswana, actively serving local development, and fully promoting cooperation and win-win outcomes. It has injected momentum into in-depth cooperation between China and Botswana in the economic and trade fields and provided a good demonstration and reference for more Chinese enterprises to invest in Botswana and carry out exchanges and cooperation.