Switch to living on the bright side of Africa

A ready market for reliable logistics has helped businessman change his opinion of continent

Li Guangyu's two trips to Nairobi and Juba over 10 days in 2011 altered his career in Africa.

The first trip marked his debut in Kenya to be the East Africa China Trade Lane Manager of Damco. The second helped him weave a business network among the Chinese enterprises in East Africa.

Li is now Area China Trade Manager of Damco Logistics (Kenya) Limited, part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. His shift from China to Africa was partially due to his courage to explore a new world.

He joined in Maersk Logistics in early 2007 and was in charge of warehousing and distribution in Qingdao. Two years later, Li became the head of contracted logistics, responsible for business in the area north of the Yellow River, including Beijing, Tianjin, Taiyuan and Qingdao.

Experiencing a booming business in West Africa, the company began to seek business possibilities in East Africa in 2011. Li was asked to give it a go.

"Knowing nothing about Africa but poverty, disaster, war, disease - all negative images - I hesitated," Li says.

In the end, however, he agreed to accept the challenge to develop bilateral business ties between China and East Africa.

Li arrived in Nairobi on July 31, 2011, making his debut and getting basically familiar with African business.

Just 10 days later, he was sent to Juba, capital of South Sudan, to conduct a market survey. That was only a month after the country declared its independence. Many Chinese companies, including China National Petroleum Corp, China Overseas Engineering Corp and China Railway, flocked in.

He arrived in Juba on Aug 11 and talked to many Chinese companies one by one. His arrival in the country brought excitement to the Chinese, who were eager to find a reliable logistics company with a great reputation.

They were eager to use Damco's services and shared contacts of their outlets in surrounding countries in anticipation of further cooperation.

Within one year, Li visited Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Djibouti and Ethiopia, weaving his network in the eastern Africa area. By the end of 2012, the number of containers he won from South Sudan accounted for more than 70 percent of the total, a breakthrough that laid a solid foundation for further business in the region.

Six years later, Li's negative impressions had completely changed.

"The city has a new look and is full of promising opportunities," Li says. "People here are friendly, and I have become accustomed to Western food.

"I turned from horror and little understanding to attachment. I brought my family here, and my son became the first baby of my family born in Africa."

While he once hesitated in 2013, when a terror attack at Westgate, Nairobi, killed 67 people and injured at least 175, it was "the persistence of many people from other companies who still worked in the country that made me stay on and contribute to China-Africa development".

Now with his six years of experience of working in Africa, Li has learned that Chinese companies unfamiliar with the logistics chain can incur losses sometimes. And some are not strict in following local rules and regulations, bringing a Chinese mentality to their dealings with African people.

Damco is dedicated to providing solutions, and admonishing them to provide sufficient and necessary documents and certificates to clear customs.

"Under such circumstances, I want to turn my company into an international service platform to help Chinese companies optimize their costs, enhance their logistics efficiency and improve their image in African countries, including Kenya," Li says.

panzhongming@chinadaily.com.cn