Early hardship leads to joy of success

In 2011, for example, Zhongtai was a major subcontracting engineer on 60 kilometers of track that was part of a deal between Ethiopian Railways and China Civil Engineering Construction. The project called for construction of the 339 km Mieso-Dire Dawa-Dewele railway line, part of the Addis Ababa-Dire Dawa-Djibouti railway project. The project provides vital passenger and freight transport and links Addis Ababa with Djibouti's port.

That is just the kind of contract Ye likes to illustrate his favorite phase, "borrow the boat to go out to sea".

Other overseas construction projects have followed along the same lines, including one right in the center of Nigeria's commercial center, Lagos, and stadium and cement plant construction projects in Algeria.

The company's full pipeline of work includes other investments in Algeria, Benin, Ethiopia, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria.

Last year alone, the company bid for six overseas deals worth 5.3 billion yuan ($855 million) and it is now negotiating a number of engineering projects that are expected to top 10 billion yuan in value.

The Ministry of Commerce has fully accredited Zhongtai as having the experience to undertake construction projects under China's foreign aid projects.

It is also one of the driving forces behind a new chamber of commerce set up between the company's home city in China, Langfang in Hebei province, and Cairo. The chamber aims to promote trade relations, individual relationship, and increasing investments between the two. "With the political situation in Egypt calming down and social stability in recovery, the chamber of commerce will play a bigger role in boosting China-Egypt economic and trade exchanges," Ye says.

Li Wenjian, Zhong Taiheng's chairman, was an engineer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army from 1978 to 1985. His company emerged from the 179th Regiment of the PLA's Engineer Corps in 1985. Since then, it has grown and it is now ranked 297 on China's Top 500 Enterprises list.