Photo: Ambassador of China to South Africa
17 April 2022
Thousands of job seekers on Thursday swarmed into the Gallagher Convention Center in Johannesburg, where Chinese-invested enterprises in South Africa threw a job fair in hopes of hiring local talent for localized development.
Long queues of people waited to submit their CVs in front of the stands of their preferred companies. To prevent chaos, organizers had to limit admissions due to the sheer number of participants.
Chinese Ambassador Chen Xiaodong said the job Fair is a concrete initiative and effort to implement agreements between the leaders of the two countries. It not only creates jobs for South Africans but also provides an opportunity for Chinese enterprises to hire local talent and pursue localized development.
“Today, over 100 Chinese-invested enterprises pledge to provide 20,000 jobs directly for South Africans in the next three years. Their businesses cover infrastructure, communications, mining, automobile, agriculture and many other areas,” said Chen. “For example, Huawei will provide 450 jobs and Pengxin will provide 3,500 jobs in the next three years.”
South Africa’s Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Alvin Botes said the job fair showed China’s commitment to eradicating the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality and was evidence of the depth of the two countries’ partnership.
According to him, the job fair would not only generate much-needed jobs, but also lead to skills transfer, especially in ICT, mining clothing, information technology, and construction.