[TRANSLATION] China-Africa Trade Unions High-Level Seminar

Creating a communication platform to serve China-Africa friendship
With China-Africa relations getting increasingly closer, more and more enterprises enter Africa and invest in Africa. Within this phenomenon, how to build up harmonious labor relations and promote the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises in Africa? The China-Africa Trade Unions High-Level Seminar “Multi-National Corporations Labour Relations and the Role of Trade Unions” was held in Beijing on May 15-16. The Seminar was attended by representatives and experts of Chinese and African trade unions, enterprises, governments as well as the UN’s International Labour Organization, in an attempt to brainstorm, share experiences, and find the best implementation plan.
The seminar aimed at providing African trade union leaders with a comprehensive introduction to the achievements of China’s reform and opening up and the concept of peaceful development. It also aimed at introducing China’s practices in fostering harmonious labour relations, while at the same time creating a platform to help Chinese enterprises to better know African countries’ labour market, labour relations and the unions’ status, so to promote the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises in Africa and the deepening of China-Africa economic cooperation.
The All China Federation of Trade Unions’s Vice Chairman and General Secretary Jiang Guangping pointed out that the friendly exchanges between Chinese and African trade unions are part of China-Africa relations. This Seminar is a new attempt for Chinese trade unions to conform to the new requirements and expectations by African trade unions, and to serve the Chinese enterprises “going out” strategy. It is also about Chinese and African trade unions enriching the cooperation content and innovating the forms of cooperation to promote the overall friendly relations between China and Africa.
African trade union representatives one after the other have expressed the hope that China and Africa retain the complementary advantages, that more Chinese enterprises invest in Africa, that China provides more employment and training opportunities, produces higher quality products, and promotes technology development and infrastructure construction. At the same time they wish to learn the Chinese trade unions’ experience, the establishment of equal dialogue between trade unions and enterprises, effective communication platforms and modalities, so to achieve a social and economic coordinated, sustainable and inclusive development.
Among the representatives that participated to the high-level seminar, African trade union leaders mostly came from nine countries that are the most important areas where Chinese enterprises invest: Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Liberia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya. Among the invitees there were also representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries, as well as the China Enterprise Confederation, a number of managers and enterprise union presidents of Chinese enterprises investing in Africa.
In the two days, the representatives will focus on the status of China-Africa economic cooperation, comparing Chinese and African labour relations experiences, globalization and trade union movements, how trade unions can play a role among multi-national corporations and other topics so to carry on extensive exchanges and deepen mutual understanding.
Editors: Shen Yaxin, Sheng Hui
中国·非洲工会高级研讨会在京举行
搭建沟通平台服务中非友好
随着中非关系的日益密切，越来越多的中国企业走进非洲、投资非洲。在此过程中，如何构建中资企业和谐劳动关系、推动在非洲的可持续发展？5月15日至16日在北京举行的“跨国企业劳动关系及工会作用”——中国·非洲工会高级研讨会上，来自中国和非洲工会、企业、政府，以及联合国国际劳工组织的代表和知名学者，深入思考，分享经验，试图寻找最佳实现方案。
据了解，此次研讨会旨在向非洲工会领导人全面介绍中国改革开放成就、和平发展理念，及中国构建和谐劳动关系的实践，同时搭建起平台，帮助中国企业更好地了解非洲国家劳动力市场，劳动关系和工会状况，推动中资企业在非可持续发展，推动中非经贸合作进一步加深。
中华全国总工会副主席、书记处书记江广平指出，中非工会友好交往是中非国家关系的组成部分。此次研讨会是中国工会顺应非洲工会的新要求、新期待，服务中国企业“走出去”战略的一次新尝试，也是中非工会丰富合作内涵、创新合作形式，推动中非友好关系大局的一次新举措。
非洲工会代表纷纷表示，希望中非保持优势互补，有更多中资企业到非洲投资，提供更多就业和技能培训机会，生产更高质量产品，带动非洲科技和配套措施建设。同时，也希望学习中国工会经验，建立工会与企业平等对话、有效沟通的平台和方式，实现本地区社会和经济协调、可持续、包容性发展。
参加此次高级研讨会的代表中，非洲工会领导人主要来自赞比亚、纳米比亚、博茨瓦纳、利比里亚、加纳、津巴布韦、苏丹、坦桑尼亚、肯尼亚等9个国家，是中国企业在非投资重要地区。同时，邀请了中国外交部、商务部等相关部门代表，及中国企业联合会、一批在非洲投资企业的管理者和企业工会主席。两天中，大家将围绕中非经贸合作情况、中非劳动关系经验比较、全球化与工会运动、工会如何在跨国公司中发挥作用等议题进行广泛交流，加深相互了解。
(责编：申亚欣、盛卉)