China–Rwanda Ties: Chinese garment factory contributes to 'Made In Rwanda' campaign

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The East African country Rwanda, is implementing a campaign called "Made In Rwanda", to boost its own industries. Foreign investments are welcomed to join this initiative, and Chinese entrepreneurs are contributing to the campaign. CGTN's He Weiwei visits a Chinese garment factory in Rwanda and brings us this report.

Freddy works at a garment factory in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. After over two years of hard work, he's now a supervisor of a group of 40 workers. What makes him special is his knowledge of Chinese embroidery techniques.

BONKE FREDDY MUBOTANYI, SUPERVISOR C&H GARMENTS LTD, RWANDA "I'm very proud (of my work). We used to have teachers from China, they taught traditional Chinese embroidery culture, and we somehow combine it with the African culture so we can create good things."

Freddy knew nothing about embroidery until he came to this Chinese factory, whose founder Ma Xiaomei has been living in Africa and running her garment business for 15 years.

MA XIAOMEI, CEO C&H GARMENTS LTD, RWANDA "Rwanda hasn't had any textile industry in the past, so establishing such a garment factory here is quite difficult. Workers need a lot of training. But the Rwandan government helped me cover 70% of the training costs, which made me determined to invest in the country four years ago."

Like many other African countries, Rwanda used to be a large importer of second-hand clothes from the US. To change the situation, the country increased tariffs on such goods in March 2017 and called for a "Made in Rwanda" campaign.

This garment factory has thus become a model for the textile industry. It now has 1500 workers, all of whom are local. They mainly produce uniforms.

MA XIAOMEI, CEO C&H GARMENTS LTD, RWANDA "Now many people in Rwanda are wearing clothes made from our factory. We also receive orders from schools and government bodies for uniforms. In addition, we have a collaboration project with the local government to offer training to smaller garment workshops and buy them modern machines to make clothes."

In the eyes of local workers like Freddy, Ma is a good boss who gives them a career.

BONKE FREDDY MUBOTANYI, SUPERVISOR C&H GARMENTS LTD, RWANDA "She gives us advice so that we can create, we can pursue our dreams. I want to be a businessman, I want to invest these things (garments making), I really like it."

Ma is planning to enlarge her factory in the near future, and provide 10 thousand jobs to local workers. HWW, CGTN, the city of Kigali, Rwanda.