Giving back

Being grateful for all the help and opportunities he received in China, Sourakhata has been trying in return to help Chinese entrepreneurs seeking to expand in Africa. “I had the chance to meet Senegalese President Macky Sall when he visited China in 2014, and he asked me to become a bridge for China-africa friendship,” he said proudly.

In February 2015, he organized the first Chinese Investors Forum in Senegal, which was attended by the Chinese Ambassador to Senegal, the Senegalese Minister of Professional Training, Learning and Crafts, as well as by a delegation from Yiwu City and representatives from both Chinese and Senegalese private enterprises.

Sourakhata said that the aim of the forum is to help Chinese businessmen better integrate into Senegal by understanding the local investment environment and preferential policies. Meanwhile, he also hoped that Chinese businesspeople’s success in Senegal would bring benefits to local people through job creation - a win-win situation, Sourakhata explained.

“The forum provides opportunities and a platform to Chinese businesspeople in Senegal, just as Yiwu did for me,” he said. “Efforts have been made on the part of governments. Now I want to promote people-to-people exchanges.” Sourakhata said he hopes the forum will be his own way to give back to Yiwu, a city which has given him so much since his first visit in 2003.

Since the first Africans came to Yiwu to buy and export low-price Chinese products in the late 1990s, the city has become a major destination for African businesspeople. Today, there are an estimated 3,000 Africans living and working in Yiwu.

“When I saw the wisdom and diligence of Yiwu businesspeople, I decided to stay there. Today I feel this was the right decision,” said Sourakhata during an interview with African media in April 2016. Comments to glj@chinafrica.cn