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Shared Truths Bind a Shared Future; Hearts Alike Though Separated by Vast Mountains and SeasChina and Africa maintain a strategic partnership based on shared weal and woe as well as mutual benefit and win-win results. Cultural resonance and intimate people-to-people bonds constitute the profound foundation of the all-weather China-Africa friendship. Centered on the overarching vision of building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era and aligned with national strategic arrangements for China-Africa cultural exchanges, the Group earnestly fulfills its mission of opening-up and development. It has successfully hosted the 3rd In-depth Cultural Exchange Program in China for Outstanding Nigerian Employees. Ten outstanding core staff members from Nigeria Mass Industrial Park traveled to Shandong Province, embarking on a ten-day immersive tour featuring civilizational mutual learning, industrial connectivity and people-to-people communication.
This cross-border exchange program is not only an important practice for the enterprise to implement national foreign cooperation strategies and deepen China-Africa people-to-people diplomacy, but also a strategic layout for the Group to cultivate international talents, unite overseas teams and consolidate the foundation of cross-border industrial cooperation. Taking culture as a bridge, talents as messengers and industries as the foundation, the Group offers all-round, multi-level and immersive experiences of China’s national conditions and culture. These experiences advance civilizational integration, conceptual communication and team unity between China and Nigeria, enabling the seeds of China-Africa friendly cooperation in the new era to take root, bloom and bear fruit on the fertile land of Shandong.
Cultural Lineages Stretch for a Thousand Years, Civilizations Nurture Original AspirationsCentering on fine traditional Chinese culture, this exchange helps overseas employees deeply comprehend the fundamental strength behind China’s cultural confidence. The delegation visited the Former Residence of Wang Xizhi, the Sage of Calligraphy, tracing back the thousand-year-old lineage of Chinese calligraphy. Amid ink paintings and diverse calligraphic strokes, they appreciated the grace of Chinese etiquette and the philosophy of revering culture and virtue. The Ink-Washing Pond carries forward a millennium of cultural heritage, and the stele corridor preserves the elegant legacies of ancient literati, vividly interpreting the spiritual core of Chinese civilization: inclusiveness, modesty, perseverance, long-term vision, heritage and innovation. Foreign guests took part in interactive intangible cultural heritage calligraphy experiences, gained close access to profound Chinese cultural heritage, and thoroughly grasped the cultural code that sustains the endless vitality of Chinese civilization. This further consolidates the ideological foundation for cross-cultural understanding, mutual trust and respect.
At municipal cultural museums, the profound civilizations of Shandong and the complete development timeline of Chinese history unfolded step by step. National treasure artifacts including jade burial suits, Han Dynasty stone reliefs and eggshell black pottery fully outline the long-standing development of Chinese civilization and demonstrate its profound, extensive and inclusive essence. Nigerian employees sighed with sincere emotion that cultural relics are a silent language transcending national borders and time, allowing overseas people to truly perceive a credible, lovely and respectable image of China. From ancient cultural heritage to folk intangible heritage, the Group elaborately arranged diverse cultural exchange scenarios. The delegation paid an in-depth visit to ancient Langya City to immerse themselves in its thousand-year folk customs and regional cultural charm, and visited the Linshu Willow Weaving Intangible Cultural Heritage Base to create and practice handcrafts together with Chinese employees. The interwoven willow strands represent the generational inheritance of intangible craftsmanship, and also serve as vivid testimony to mutual learning and two-way empowerment between Chinese and African civilizations. Tiny people-to-people exchanges converge to form a mighty force advancing the integration of Chinese and African civilizations.
Sports Transcend All Borders, United Hearts Boost Civilizational IntegrationGuided by the goal of strengthening people-to-people ties between China and Africa, the Group innovatively built a two-way interactive exchange platform and carefully organized a series of bonding activities including a China-Nigeria employee friendly football match and riverside team-building events. On the pitch, Chinese and foreign employees cooperated side by side, strove tenaciously and helped each other, embodying the sporting spirit of unity, inclusiveness, hard work and common progress. During forums, employees from both sides exchanged views on development, shared ideas and deepened friendship. These activities thoroughly broke geographical barriers, cultural gaps and language obstacles, greatly enhancing the sense of belonging, identity and cohesion of overseas teams, and laying solid emotional, team and collaborative foundations for the Group’s integrated cross-border operations.
Explore Millennia of Culture, Witness the New Look of a Modern EraBlending ancient heritage with modern progress in an all-round, multi-dimensional manner, this itinerary enabled overseas outstanding staff to witness the vivid practice of Chinese modernization from a full panoramic perspective. The delegation climbed urban landmarks to overlook the overall urban development layout, ascended famous mountains to admire the magnificent landscapes of Shandong, and toured riverside new towns at night to experience modern achievements featuring coordinated ecological conservation and urban development. Visits to physical commercial districts and digital e-commerce markets allowed them to closely feel the dynamic vitality of China’s digital economy, steady growth of the real economy and continuously improved people’s wellbeing. They gained genuine insight into the strong driving force and broad prospects of China’s high-quality development in the new era.
During cultural experiences and wellness breaks, overseas guests deeply perceived the aesthetic lifestyle and time-honored etiquette unique to China. National intangible cultural heritage treasures such as Sichuan Opera Face-Changing fully display the charm of Oriental art, while distinctive Shandong cuisine carries the heritage of thousands of years of culinary culture. Every meal and every ritual enabled overseas employees to perceive China’s gentleness, inclusiveness, etiquette and craftsmanship in trivial details, further consolidating the emotional foundation for mutual learning between civilizations.
Talents Are the Primary Resource for Global Development, People’s Hearts Are the Fundamental Cornerstone of Cross-border CooperationFrom the strategic perspective of global layout and high-quality development, the Group adheres to the development philosophy that “employees are the core assets of the enterprise, and talents are the core driving force for transnational development”. It integrates overseas talent cultivation, humanistic care and career empowerment into its core internationalization strategic system.
Throughout this program, the Group adopted high-standard, high-level and all-round supportive and empowering measures. Every outstanding Nigerian employee was equipped with smart terminals, and a special “Happy Life” care subsidy program was launched. Beyond short-term exchange support, the Group focuses on the long-term growth, career advancement and quality of life of overseas talents. These efforts fully reflect the sense of responsibility, humanistic vision and global operation perspective of a local Chinese multinational enterprise, and lay a solid talent foundation for the Group to deepen its presence in African markets, sustain localized operations and cultivate international core teams.
Yang Jijiang, Chairman of the Group, stated: China-Africa cooperation has entered a new stage featuring in-depth industrial integration, extensive cultural communication and close strategic alignment. The essence of corporate internationalization lies in the internationalization of talents, culture and cooperation. Upholding a people-centered approach and open win-win cooperation, the Group will keep advancing joint talent training, cultural integration and shared industrial prosperity between China and Africa. It will leverage people-to-people bonds to boost business connectivity, and unite teams to drive industrial coordination, continuously fostering a stable, long-term and high-quality ecosystem for China-Africa cross-border cooperation.
The trip came to an end, with all participants returning home laden with valuable experiences and precious memories. Nigerian employees all said that this trip to China completely reshaped their understanding and impression of China in the new era, letting them deeply feel the profound depth of Chinese culture, the rapid pace of urban development and the sincere humanistic warmth of the enterprise. They will voluntarily act as grassroots envoys for China-Africa friendship, messengers for Sino-foreign cultural communication and brand ambassadors for enterprise cooperation. They will actively tell stories about China, Shandong and Sino-foreign cooperation, and continuously promote deeper exchanges and coordinated development between China and Nigeria.
True Friendship Knows No Distance; We Are Neighbors Even Thousands of Miles ApartThis in-depth exchange program for outstanding Chinese and African employees is a pragmatic initiative of the Group to actively integrate into the national opening-up layout and serve the construction of a China-Africa community with a shared future. It is also a strategic practice for the enterprise to take root domestically, expand its reach across Africa, realize two-way empowerment and mutual development. The program effectively breaks cross-cultural communication barriers, unites consensus among domestic and overseas teams and consolidates the foundation of cross-border industrial cooperation. It fully demonstrates the brand-new demeanor of Chinese private enterprises in the new era: open, inclusive, pursuing mutual benefit and win-win results, bearing overall national interests in mind and embracing the whole world.
Standing at a new development stage and embarking on a new journey of internationalizationIn the future, the Group will keep following national strategic guidelines for China-Africa cooperation. It will gather synergy through cultural exchanges, consolidate foundations via joint talent training and pursue win-win outcomes through industrial co-construction. The Group will build regular two-way exchange platforms between China and Africa, and continuously deepen team coordination, resource sharing and industrial linkage between both sides. It will empower high-standard opening-up through civilizational mutual learning, boost high-quality cross-border development via people-to-people connectivity, continuously consolidate the all-weather strategic friendship between China and Africa, and work hand in hand with African partners to create a new landscape of China-Africa cooperation and draw a new blueprint for joint development.
