11/7/2016

To attract foreign investment in construction change of attitude is key for South Africans - The Hard Hat Professional

Peter Wu

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I am a Taiwanese born South African who has been residing in SA for 27 years. I call SA my home. I immigrated with my family to South
Africa in 1989 when I was 7 years old and attended my schooling and tertiary education in South Africa.

I was fortunate enough to start my career in construction about 10 years ago when the property sector was on the uprising trend and jobs
were relatively in abundance. Despite the hardships and pain I endured, I was proud of my work and can truly say I was involved in some of
SA`s iconic projects in recent years.

I started my base in Rainbow Construction South Africa as a Site Engineer. As it was my first job, I treated it with pride. I was later promoted
to Construction Site Manager. While in construction I was involved in high profile projects such as Water Treatment Plant in mining,
Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport and FIFA World Cup Ellis Park Stadium upgrade.

I was appointed as a Construction Project Manager for MIT Property for their industrial warehouse construction development. I was involved
in the facilitation of their briefing, concept design and feasibility, design development, tender and documentation, management and project
close out.

I was later exposed to a Chinese and South African owned state-owned company (Beijing Automobile Works) where I was exposed to
business and relationship developments.
In Zendai Development South Africa I was exposed to Property Development predominately in Land Development and Planning with
international and local consultants. I was involved in the company`s first residential development as well.

http://www.thhp.co.za/archives/foreign-investment-southafrica/

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To attract foreign investment in construction change of attitude is key for South Africans - The Hard Hat Professional

With the 2008 financial crisis ripple effect, I was part of the country`s bulk that underwent massive
retrenchment. After the retrenchment I was worried about my mortgages. Being bi-lingual in English and
Chinese, I was eventually lucky enough to find work in and out of the construction sector with Chinese
companies investing in SA, and was fortunate enough to work with multiple Chinese companies.

There is no doubt China (and the world) is looking for the next new prospective industrialisation land. China had their money on Africa and
has tried and tested many pilot projects in South Africa, with many bad experiences with culture differences and downturn in the economy in
the last couple of years.

South Africa has been pleading for foreign investments since post-apartheid, and when finally a big potential investor like China had shown
interest, their pilot companies had experienced big rejection of Chinese culture from local South Africans which has been a bit unfair in my
opinion when you consider most South Africans thinking is, the Chinese are the ones that want to invest here, so they should adhere to
our culture and not us to theirs.

South Africans are looking more to exploit Chinese companies as opposed to working with them to success. This kind of thinking signals
mentalities of people not used to working with international foreigners. Despite the excuse of the worldwide recession, the SA government
has also not done their job in making the country enticing for international investors.

Some of the issues which need to be addressed in order to attract more international investors : some potential tax incentives that are too
complex to obtain would not secure further foreign investment if their staff could not work with the locals, their staff fear crime, their plants
get vandalised and robbed, no water or power, uncertainty in currency. All this amounts to no profits and this consequently leads to
international investors shying away from investing in South Africa. We, South Africans, have shot ourselves in the foot.

I am now battling to find work even with Chinese companies as they have started to turn their back on SA. My wife and I could no longer find
jobs in SA and we were forced to seek work opportunities abroad in the UK. I immigrated with my wife to London on Tier 2-dependent visa,
hence eligible to work in the UK.

This mud island is not what we call home. We are anxiously waiting to return home to South Africa once stability and job opportunities have
returned.

Do you agree with Peter do we need to change our attitude towards potential investors in South Africa?

The views expressed on the blog are not the views of The Hardhat Professional but that of the author.

http://www.thhp.co.za/archives/foreign-investment-southafrica/

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To attract foreign investment in construction change of attitude is key for South Africans - The Hard Hat Professional
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Peter Wu a Taiwanese born South African who has been residing in SA for 27 years. He is a professional in construction management, project management, property
development and business development from.

http://www.thhp.co.za/archives/foreign-investment-southafrica/

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