ChinaPower Company sets eye on opening a new office in Kenya to serve East and South Africa market
Kenya’s capital was chosen due to its travel convenience as well as the country’s plans for huge infrastructure projects that have created a huge potential for firm’s future business.
This is the latest move in the rush for Nairobi’s booming economy and convenience of doing business, after the recent move by the aeroplane maker Boeing, to put up its regional office last week.
PowerChina Kenya’s subsidiary manager, Zha Rui, on Thursday told journalists in Nairobi that Kenya’s capital was chosen due to its travel convenience as well as the country’s plans for huge infrastructure projects that have created a huge potential for firm’s future business.
“Ideally the headquarters would have been in South Africa, but Kenya has easier visa access as well as good climate and safety for us. We felt that the regional headquarters is important to speed up our decision making in the region as well,” Rui said.
To achieve the completion of the three year project, the firm said, it is scouting for land where the headquarters will be built.
The headquarters will cover 26 countries in eastern and southern Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Angola, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa
PowerChina, which earned Sh5 trillion in 2016 in revenues, provides comprehensive and full-range of services from planning, investigation, designing, consulting, civil works construction to manufacturing services in the fields of hydropower, thermal power, new energy and infrastructure.
Key projects
The firm eyes the construction of the 981-megawatt Lamu (Coastal Kenya) coal power plant, which recently got the green light from Kenya’s Energy Regulatory Commission.
The move to set up a regional base in Nairobi completes the Chinese firm’s consolidation of its international business in East and Southern Africa region.
The firm’s subsidiary, Sinohydro Corporation, has already undertaken several projects in the country including the Thika Road upgrade (lot 2), Emali-Oloitokitok Road and the and the Nzoia Water Supply System among others.
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