The city of Tianjin opened the first Luban workshop in Thailand in 2016. The vocational training centers, so named after Lu Ban, a mythical figure revered as an inventor, were subsequently co-opted by the central government and have gone global, especially in Africa. China announced at the 2018 FOCAC summit in Beijing that it would set up ten Luban workshops in Africa. It opened the first one in Djibouti in 2019 with the Djiboutian president in attendance. It opened the 12th one in Africa at the end of 2021 in Morocco.
In addition to Djibouti and Morocco, China now has Luban workshops in Nigeria, Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and two in Egypt. The Dekar 2022-2024 FOCAC action plan commits China to establishing more Luban workshops around Africa. They are usually housed within a local institution and focus training on skills in short supply in that country. They offer China the opportunity to encourage Chinese technical standards and eventually sell Chinese equipment in African markets.
