Foreign workers play big role

Migration and the international transfer of skills are significant drivers of economic growth in both developed and emerging markets.

Indeed, the movement of workers, specifically those with experience in key economic growth areas such as telecoms, translates directly into multiple macro and micro benefits for the market in which the skills are applied.

The multinational organisation ZTE Corporation sees this in the more than 140 markets in which it operates globally.

On a macro level (because of clear visibility often a more immediate benefit) highly specialised and specific skills in areas such as network optimisation allow us to implement a telecoms infrastructure that immediately creates longer-term economic enablement and consequently creates access to systems and infrastructure which can realistically lift people out of poverty.

On a micro level, the benefits take longer to be felt. This, however, does not lessen the impact of the transfer of skills over time - a direct and measurable benefit that immeasurably boosts attractiveness of markets as an investment destination and global competitiveness.

In South Africa, ZTE has been at the apex of this debate for the past week. It has been alleged that ZTE used illegally employed Chinese nationals to deliver on its network development contracts, but this could not be further from the truth.

ZTE brought in a small group of expert skills to deliver on a telecommunications project that many South Africans have been waiting for for a long time - after all reasonable attempts to recruit those specific skills locally failed.

All the specialist professional staff employed on so-called "expatriate arrangements" are within the requirements laid down by the Department of Home Affairs. For ZTE, compliance with laws, rules and regulations of the 140-odd countries in which we operate is a non-negotiable.

As this issue is debated there is a significant lack of context in the public domain. While the legitimacy of these employments has been proven without a doubt, and as a result all staff released by the SA Police Service, without charges (within hours of being taken into custody), the impact of the workers' temporary presence in SA on the broader economy has been lost.

The Department of Labour itself estimates there are skills shortages in the region of 500000 professionals. The skills deployed by ZTE are held by less than 500 people around the world, so the disconnect between these two realities is very real.

For all multinationals operating in the South African market it is critical to build the relevance of skilled migrants to the domestic economy. In an increasingly globalised world, SA cannot escape this. Indeed, organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank lobby for the liberalisation of migration policies to reduce red tape around the world, noting that this hampers the free flow of skilled professionals as growth drivers.

ZTE will continue to invest in SA and is committed to the development of the South African economy - transferring as many skills to domestic professionals along the way.

• Fuentes de la Torre is ZTE Corporation's contract manager. His comments follow the story on the arrest of Chinese workers in last week's Business Times