Shoemakers are the wildebeests of global trade, migrating to wherever the grass is greenest – or in their case, labour costs are lowest.

制鞋企业是全球贸易中的“牛羚”。就像牛羚总是要迁徙到草最肥美的地方一样，制鞋企业总是会迁移到劳动力成本最低的地方。

So when Huajian Shoes, one of China’s leading shoe exporters, launched its first overseas operations last year, it was following a well-trodden path. Only the destination – Ethiopia – was surprising.

因此，当中国领先鞋具出口商之一华坚集团(Huajian)去年创立其首个海外业务时，它走的可谓是一条寻常路。只是该公司把目的地选在了埃塞俄比亚，这有点令人意外。

Helen Hai, the Chinese group’s vice-president who oversaw the Ethiopian move, says the gradual appreciation of the Renminbi, and rising labour costs are squeezing margins and forcing many Chinese shoemakers to consider similar moves. But most have stuck closer to home in Asia.

华坚副总裁、负责该公司埃塞俄比亚工厂的海宇(Helen Hai)表示，人民币逐渐升值以及不断上涨的劳动力成本正在挤压利润率，迫使很多中国制鞋企业考虑采取类似的举措。不过，它们多数是在距离本土较近的亚洲国家设厂。

“Thirty years ago the Chinese had no idea how to make shoes for international markets,” says Ms Hai. “It was the Taiwanese and Hong Kong people who came to China to set up factories – because 30 years ago it was 20 per cent cheaper to produce shoes in China compared with Taiwan.”

“30年前，中国人还不懂得如何为国际市场制造鞋子。”海宇表示，“来大陆设厂的是台湾人和香港人，因为30年前大陆的制鞋成本比台湾低20%。”

Huajian, which makes ladies’ shoes for Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Naturaliser, Clarks and other western brands and employs 25,000 workers in mainland China, is among the first Chinese manufacturers to launch large scale operations in Africa. In just over a year it has employed 1,750 people at its factory outside Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. It is now planning a major expansion into injection moulded shoes.

华坚为Tommy Hilfiger、Guess、Naturaliser、Clarks和其他西方品牌制造女鞋，在中国大陆拥有2.5万名员工，是首批在非洲设立大规模生产业务的中国制造商之一。在一年多一点的时间里，该公司位于埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴郊区的工厂已聘用了1750名员工。如今，华坚正计划向注塑鞋领域大举扩张。

When the late Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, put his country’s case to a gathering of Chinese manufacturers in late 2011, Ms Hai says it was a relatively easy decision to make in terms of cost calculations, if a more vertiginous leap culturally.

当时任埃塞俄比亚总理的梅莱斯•泽纳维（Meles Zenawi，2012年去世）在2011年末把该国情况介绍给中国制造商时，海宇表示，从成本计算的角度来讲，做出这个决定相对容易，若从文化角度来讲，这是一个很大的跨越。

“Locally, the labour is very competitive; and also the electricity cost is actually only half of the cost compared with China. And then for shoe making there is also the advantage in Ethiopia that there’s a great supply of sheep and goat skin,” she says.

她表示：“从当地的情况来看，劳动力非常具有竞争力；电力成本竟然只有中国的一半。就制鞋业务而言，埃塞俄比亚还有一个优势：这里的绵羊皮和山羊皮供应量巨大。”

The biggest incentive of all, however, were the preferential tariffs Ethiopia has to access the EU and US markets, which in some cases give the company a 27.5 per cent advantage over manufacturers in China.

然而，最大的激励因素是埃塞俄比亚进入欧美市场的产品享受优惠关税。

Despite this, the group’s ambitions in Africa go against the grain. There is growing concern among African officials that the flood of cheap imports that has accompanied China’s expanding role in the continent is contributing to its deindustrialisation.

尽管如此，华坚在非洲的远大抱负仍可谓是不寻常之路。如今，非洲官员日益担心的是，随着中国在非洲发挥的作用日趋增强，大量廉价进口产品涌入非洲，造成该地区的去工业化。

Trade between China and Africa rose above $200bn in 2012, 20 times what it was in 2000 when Beijing committed to a policy of accelerated engagement. But booming relations have coincided with the relative decline of African manufacturing.

去年，中非贸易额超过2000亿美元，是2000年的20倍（那一年中国政府承诺要出台政策加速中非合作）。但在中非关系蓬勃发展之际，非洲的制造业却在相对衰落。

But Ms Hai sees the industrial journey Ethiopia has embarked on as something China was setting out on itself 30 years ago, when as a small girl, she travelled with her father to Beijing for the first time. They found the first hotel they tried to check in to beyond their means. “The moment I left that hotel I thought there’s a world that does not belong to me; but my life has changed dramatically,” she says.

在海宇眼中，埃塞俄比亚现已走上的工业化道路与30年前中国自己所走的道路类似。当年，还是一个小女孩的海宇与父亲第一次来到北京。当两人想入住一家酒店时，却发现住不起。海宇说：“离开酒店的那一刻我在想，有一个世界是不属于我的；不过，我的生活已经发生了巨大的变化。”

A scholarship to study in the UK saw her become a trained actuary, and employee of the Zurich insurance group, before she entered manufacturing.

海宇依靠奖学金在英国完成了学业，成长为一名科班出身的精算师，并成为苏黎世保险集团的员工，而后又加入了制造业。

Ms Hai believes Ethiopia, which has its own home-grown footwear sector already could become a global hub for the shoe industry, supplying African, European and American markets.

她相信，已拥有本土制鞋行业的埃塞俄比亚可能会成为一个全球鞋业中心，为非洲、欧洲和美国市场供应产品。

“When you have thousands of shoe factories, you will have thousands of suppliers providing all the material. And that’s when you have economies of scale and you see the costs coming down,” she says.

她表示：“当你有数千家鞋厂时，你就会有数千家供应各种原材料的供应商。到那时，你就形成了规模经济，就会看到成本下滑。”

For now one of the biggest constraints to doing business, she says, is the logistics, high transport costs and the need to import many of the inputs.

海宇说，目前而言，一些最大的经营障碍是物流、运输成本高企以及需要进口很多原材料。

Chinese companies come to Africa in some ways at a disadvantage, she adds, noting language and other cultural barriers. Their great asset, she says on the other hand, is their willingness to take a leap into the unknown.

她补充称，来非洲的中国企业在某些方面受到不利因素制约，她提到了语言和其他文化障碍。她表示，从另一方面讲，这些企业的一大优势是有意愿进军未知领域。

“There is a big difference between Chinese and European entrepreneurs. You see a tiger, you study its characteristics and work out how to overcome it. You do all kinds of feasibility studies before you take any action,” she says.

海宇说：“中国和欧洲的企业家存在一大差异。欧洲企业家看到老虎，会先研究它的特点，然后找出制服它的方法。他们会在采取任何行动之前进行各种可行性研究。

“Chinese entrepreneurs  . . . look at the tiger; they jump on top of the tiger and they think ‘OK, what am I going to do next?’ This kind of mindset has helped China grow so fast in the past 20 years.”

“中国企业家……看到老虎，会先跳到虎背上，然后想‘好了，下一步我该做些什么？’”正是这种心态帮助中国在过去20年实现了如此快速的增长。