STORY: African youths fulfill career aspirations on Chinese-built project in Cote d'Ivoire
SHOOTING TIME: May 23, 2024
DATELINE: May 25, 2024
LENGTH: 00:04:26
LOCATION: Abidjan
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MARCOS ALLADAWEMON, Quality inspector, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): BALOGOUN BABATUNDE, Chief of the earthworks division, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): MAYIF TCHABANA, Chief translator and chief of pavement division, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire

STORYLINE:

The Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire is being constructed by China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC).

Stretching approximately 228 kilometers, the road starts from Cote d'Ivoire's Odienne in the south and goes straight north to the border of Guinea and Mali.

After completion, the Northern Road will become one of the country's transportation arteries as well as an important part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) road network.

With the advantages of their Chinese proficiency, a group of African youths has fulfilled their career ambitions on this project.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MARCOS ALLADAWEMON, Quality inspector, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire 
"I'm Marcos and from Benin in West Africa. I graduated from the School of Chinese Studies of Dalian University of Foreign Languages, getting a master's degree in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages.
In 2021, I came to work for the Northern Road project of Cote d'Ivoire through my friend's recommendation.
After a year, I found that I could not give full play to my working ability as a translator.
Since then, I have begun to get involved in the technical fieldwork.
I communicate with and learn from Chinese masters every day.
Now, I become a quality inspector in our project. My main task is to discover problems during construction, then explain the situation to the local technicians, make suggestions, and then seek ways to solve the problems.
Actually, I think the construction site is also like a university, where I can learn a lot of knowledge."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): BALOGOUN BABATUNDE, Chief of the earthworks division, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire
"My name is Balogoun. I am 29 years old, and from Benin. I graduated from the School of Architecture and Design of Harbin Institute of Technology in 2021 and then worked on the Northern Highway project in Cote d'Ivoire.
After arriving at this project, I mainly worked as a translator and was responsible for on-site communication. During this period, I learned a lot, and the Chinese masters also taught me a lot, for example, on-site management of equipment and personnel. Later, I was appointed to head of a team, then two more teams, and now I am the leader of a division with 120 staff members.
I think Chinese people are very serious about their work, and I want to learn this habit.
As I am still young, I want to work with a Chinese company for more years. In the future, I also want to open my own engineering company, whether in Benin or other countries, to develop my hometown."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): MAYIF TCHABANA, Chief translator and chief of pavement division, No.3 section of the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire
"I am Mayif, a Togolese from Lome. I graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai.
As soon as I graduated, I worked on the Abidjan Port project for about 2 years since 2017. After that, I followed the company's team to inspect the Northern Road project in Cote d'Ivoire, and I have stayed here ever since.
I started here as a translator, but now I have more responsibilities and have become the deputy director of the pavement division.
From 2017 to now, I have done a lot and learned a lot. I have learned a lot from CHEC. Now, I can say that I have richer experiences.
It used to take 4 or 5 hours to get here from Odienne, but now you can get there in just one hour.
The villagers are also very happy. Every time we go out, they shout "Chinese," "Hello" and "How are you?" This makes us feel very proud."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Abidjan.
(XHTV)