Morning in April 18th, Ethiopia time, the ground-breaking ceremony of Dire Dawa Industrial Park of the National Cement Share Company was held in Malka, Dire Dawa, with crowds of people and bundles of flags in a clear sky. More than 900 people including Aden Farah, Speaker of the Ethiopian-Federal House of Representatives; Ahmed Buh, Deputy Mayor of Dire Dawa City Government; Mustafa Mohamed, Vice President of Somali National Regional State; Buzuayehu Tadele, Chairman of East Africa Holding Group; Zhang Peng, Executive Vice President of West International Holding Group(hereinafter referred to as WIH), Cheng Jin, General Manager of Ethiopia Branch of Sinoma International Engineering Co., Ltd. and other leaders together with relevant guests from Dire Dawa city government and local media in Ethiopia attended the ceremony.
With the company of Zhang Peng, Exective Vice President, Cheng Jin, General Manager and other leaders, Speaker Aden Farah, Deputy Mayor Ahmed Buh and local government leaders at all levels visited the site and sucessfully accomplished unveiling ceremomy of Dire Dawa Industrial Park at 11:00 a.m.
Executive Vice President Zhang Peng delivered an important speech on behalf of WIH during the ceremony. He briefly introduced WIH background and its investment and development in Africa. He said that WIH is highly confident to invest in Ethiopia again because of Ethiopia's good investment environment and huge market potential, the efficient and pragmatic government departments and the sincere attitude of the partners. We are confident that the project will be built into a world-class production line with environmental protection, safety, energy saving and other indicators, and hence, to repay the people of Ethiopia with high-efficiency speed and high-quality projects.
Cheng Jin, General Manager of Ethiopia Branch of Sinoma International Engineering Co., Ltd., briefly introduced the technical strength and overseas project achievements to the guests. He promised to build a world-class building materials industrial complex with partners and local governments under the premise of strict compliance with construction quality standards and safety standards, and wished the project to be successful put into operation as soon as possible.
Buzuayehu Tadele, Chairman of East Africa Holding Group, delivered a speech of appreciation. He especially expressed his gratitude to the WIH. He pointed out that the Dire Dawa Industrial Complex is an extension of the Lemi Industrial Complex project and can not only reduce the country’s foreign exchange expenditures, but balance the trade.
Speaker of House of Ethiopian Federation, Dire Dawa City Deputy Mayor and Deputy President of Somali Regional State delivered welcoming speeches respectively. They expressed their gratitude to WIH for the investment in Dire Dawa City, saying that the municipal governments at all levels will unswervingly support the construction of the project, and strive to create a better investment environment, provide investors with quality services, and actively promote the project to be put into production on schedule.
Dire Dawa Industrial Complex is jointly constructed by WIH and EAH. It is another important layout of WIH in Ethiopia after Lemi Building Materials Industrial Complex project. The Complex plans to invest about 350 million U.S. dollars to build a 5000t/d new dry process cement production line and an annual output of 300,000 steel rolling production line. After the industrial park is fully put into operation, it will create more than 2,000 direct jobs and more than 10,000 indirect jobs in both upstream and downstream. After the project is completed, it will not only reduce the country’s foreign exchange expenditures for importing cement and steel, but also obtain more foreign exchange income through exporting and hence, making more outstanding contributions to Ethiopia’s social and economic development.
With the clarion call of the project commencement, the whole group is united and motivated to make the "Pearl"—WIH gliter in Africa and contribute to realizing the strategic goals of WIH.