Chinese engineers working, sweating overseas
By ZHENG YIRAN | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2022-07-13 21:25
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese companies are sending engineers across the world, serving as a vital workforce for local construction projects.
At this time of year, Kikupa district of Tangerang Industrial New Town in Banten province, Indonesia experiences high temperature and nearly 100 percent humidity. But at the construction site for the Samanea complex project in Indonesia, built with the help of the Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Co of the General Construction Co of China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co Ltd, workers were still busy.
Young engineer He Guoliang said: "Every time I walk from the dormitory to the project, my clothes are soaked with sweat. Everyone has to prepare two or three sets of clothes every day."
When asked about their experience coming overseas and working on the project, Chinese engineers said the language barrier was the biggest challenge as they had to communicate with material suppliers through gesturing, guessing and translation software.
"When we encountered some issues that cannot be translated by software, and we were afraid of making mistakes, we drew pictures and wrote numbers," said Wu Xiaodong, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning engineer from the post-90s generation.
With all these difficulties, young construction workers divided the 189,000-square-meter site into four areas and overcame difficulties one by one.
At present, the Samanea complex has entered the most intense stage of installation and construction. More than 170 workers stayed on the front line and actively organized production without delaying normal progress.
While participating in infrastructure construction in Indonesia, Chinese enterprises have also provided a number of employment opportunities and trained many professional and technical personnel. On this project there are 173 workers, among whom 170 were local hires. The team also replicates its mature construction production methods for the local project, providing a further value add.
