Huajian has announced it will increase its workforce in Ethiopia by ten times in the coming years. According to reports in The Financial Times, the Dongguan-based footwear maker, which currently employs 4,000 people in the African country, will raise it to a total of 40,000 in the coming years. In 2012, the Chinese shoe firm inaugurated a production site near Addis Ababa. This plant now produces 7,000 pairs of shoes per day. A former manager at the site told the newspaper that by heavily investing in training at the production facility, after one year the company had managed to increase productivity to about 70 percent of the levels it achieves in China. After two years, at the end of 2014, productivity increased to 80 percent.
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