"Yes. I saw it when I got off the plane. The infrastructure here is too weak. Our country has already started to build smart roads. Even the coverage of normal roads here is very low, "Guo Chu said sympathetically." But this also shows that the market here is very promising. "
"But business is not easy!" Bai Tongxi brought him to the temporary residential area and said, "We have encountered too many problems in the past few months. And they are all things that we have never thought of in our country before. "
"Now, it is so bad that the construction has completely stopped. We can't continue! If this continues, I think our company will have to leave Nigeria! "
"That bad?" Guo Chu frowned.
"That's not bad. The bad thing is that not only will we lose a lot of money, but we will also lose a lot of money!" Guo Chu said angrily.
South South Construction Group had just entered the African market last year. First, they started to build infrastructure in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The project included a long-distance road, a transportation railway, and part of the city.
Since last year, they started to send workers and construction machines to Nigeria and started to recruit local workers to start the construction. However, more than nine months had passed. They had not even reached one-third of their initial plan, but their expenses were already more than three times of their initial budget!
"The construction conditions here are so bad. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life!" Bai Tongxi complained. "The government here is very chaotic. We have to run all kinds of procedures and take a lot of effort."
"Even so, we can't guarantee the safety of the construction. There are always robbers and thieves coming and stealing from us. Last month, three workers were injured and one of them almost died. He has been sent back to his country for treatment. The workers are not in a good mood. Many of them want to go back to their country. "
"And our construction machines. There was one time when a few large machines were taken away by gunmen. We lost tens of millions!"
Bai Tongxi was full of bitterness. After staying in peaceful China for so long, he felt uncomfortable everywhere.
Although Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa, its security was terrible. Due to poverty, tribes, religion, and other problems, there were armed conflicts in many places.
As for robberies and extortion, they happened almost every day. In the eyes of the criminals, foreigners were all "rich people". They were easy targets.
The people of South South Construction Group had suffered a lot recently.
In order to integrate into this place, they had specially trained the locals to be bodyguards and laborers. Unfortunately, these people were of limited use. Those local workers were basically here to earn a living. They slacked off, slacked off, and ran away when they encountered danger. It was the corporation that was taking advantage of them.
Bai Tongxi brought Guo Chu to the construction site. They were sitting in a modified off-road vehicle. The doors and windows were bulletproof, and there were bodyguards with guns in the vehicle. This made Guo Chu feel that it was indeed dangerous to travel here.
They went to see a railway, which was built to transport mineral resources. There was a huge iron mine nearby, which was also being mined by a Chinese company.
The front half of the railway was still fine. It had already been built, and there were workers in charge of checking and maintaining it every day. And when it came to a halt, the construction stopped there, and no workers started to work.
When Guo Chu and the others arrived, they found a few black men stealing from the construction site. The black bodyguards in the car immediately got out of the car and shouted at them with guns. Those people hurriedly ran away.
"These black people are all poor people from nearby villages or tribes. They often come here to steal." Bai Tongxi said in a helpless and sorrowful tone. "We called the police, but it was useless. They can't even handle themselves, so they can't help us. If we injure them, they will come to the tribe and cause trouble for us. "
"There was once when we injured a few thieves, and we had to pay tens of thousands of yuan. Do you think this is reasonable in this world?"
"It's not reasonable." Guo Chu patted his shoulder and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
Bai Tongxi continued, "The construction here has stopped because of the robberies not long ago. Some workers are not willing to work here. Some of our excavators and cranes were also robbed. We have to redeploy them. "
"And we can't guarantee the safety here, so we can't start work."
Guo Chu asked, "What are the others doing? Those other Chinese companies? "
"Not all places are so chaotic," Bai Tongxi said. "Some places have good security. Some companies have hired their own security team. As long as there is no large-scale armed conflict, there shouldn't be any problems."
"We tried to do that, but we found that it's impossible. I'm afraid that someone is deliberately causing trouble. When we first came here last year, one of our local black bodyguards died! "
"This project is too difficult! The situation in China is so good. Sometimes, I even want to go back to China. "
Guo Chu knew that Bai Tongxi was under a lot of pressure recently, so he comforted him. "Aren't I here to help you? No matter how difficult it is, we have to finish this project. We have invested so much, and it will be a huge loss if we give up halfway! "
"Furthermore, this is also the experience that we have accumulated for the African project. The entire African market is so big, and it will be a pity if we give up. "
"We have to redeploy workers and machinery from China." Bai Tongxi only complained a little, but he did not think of giving up.
"I'm afraid that we will encounter the same situation as before."
"You don't have to worry about this. We have just ordered a batch of new machinery from Pengyun Machinery. When the order arrives, I will redeploy them here. I guarantee that you will be shocked! The labor shortage problem should be solved easily. "Guo Chu said." You said that someone might be deliberately causing trouble. What's the situation? "
"There is a Gola tribe nearby. They are stronger, and their chief is also more domineering. We are building nearby because we need to give them 'benefits.' But their chief is too greedy, and he thinks that we are not giving enough benefits. He even threatened to create chaos for us, and I suspect that he is the one behind this. "Bai Tongxi explained.
Guo Chu knew him well. Bai Tongxi had always been conservative with his words, and even he has some suspicions about it. This is a tough problem to solve.
Nigeria is not a modern country, and there are many tribes in the country. In some regions, the chiefs have a lot of authority, and they even have their own armed forces. It's not rare for tribes to have armed conflicts.
Even if the local government allows them to build here, they can't do anything if the chiefs want to create trouble for them.
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