In a groundbreaking disclosure, Google revealed how very white and male its workforce is — just 2 percent of its Googlers are black, 3 percent are Hispanic, and 30 percent are women.

The search giant said Wednesday that the transparency about its workforce — the first disclosure of its kind in the largely white, male tech sector — is an important step toward change.

“Simply put, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity,” Google Inc. senior vice president Laszlo Bock wrote in a blog.

The numbers were compiled as part of a report that major U.S. employers must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Companies are not required to make the information public.

The gender divide is based on the roughly 44,000 people Google employed throughout the world at the start of this year. The company didn’t factor about 4,000 workers at its Motorola Mobility division, which is being sold to China’s Lenovo Group for $2.9 billion. The racial data is limited to Google’s roughly 26,600 workers in the U.S as of August 2013.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg recently said the social networking company is headed toward disclosure as well, but it was important to share the data internally first.

Apple Inc., Twitter, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. did not respond immediately to queries about possible plans to disclose data.

Bock said Google has been working to diversify, not just its offices but in the broader tech sector. Since 2010, the firm has given more than $40 million to organizations working to bring computer science education to women and girls, he said.

The company also is working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science, he said.

“But we’re the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be, and that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution,” he said.

Gender and ethnic disparities are reflected throughout the tech industry. About 7 percent of tech workers are black or Latino in Silicon Valley and nationally. Blacks and Hispanics make up 13.1 and 16.9 percent of the U.S. population, respectively, according to the most recent Census data.

In the coming months, Google said, it will work with the Kapor Center for Social Impact, a group that uses information technology to close gender and ethnic gaps in the Silicon Valley workforce. The center will be organizing a Google-backed conference in California focusing on issues of technology and diversity.

Co-founder Freada Kapor Klein, who started the Level Playing Field Institute 13 years ago to teach and mentor black and Latino students in science and math, said Google is showing leadership “which has been sorely needed for a long time.”

“Google is the company known for the moonshot, and applying that part of Google DNA to this problem is a breath of fresh air,” she said.

Earlier this year, the Rev. Jesse Jackson launched a campaign to diversify Silicon Valley, asking to meet with leaders of several iconic technology companies about bringing black and Hispanics into their workforce and leadership.

Since then, he’s been leading delegations to annual shareholder’s meetings at firms including Google, Facebook, eBay Inc. and Hewlett-Packard.

On Wednesday Jackson said Google is to be commended.

“It’s a bold step in the right direction. We urge other companies to follow Google’s lead,” he said. “Silicon Valley and the tech industry have demonstrated an ability to solve the most challenging and complex problems in the world. Inclusion is a complex problem — if we put our collective minds together, we can solve that too.”

Iris Gardner, a manager at nonprofit Code2040, which places high performing black and Latino software engineering students in internships with top tech companies, said Google’s disclosure could mark a pivotal moment in the push to diversify Silicon Valley.

“It is a big deal for them to be transparent about something that most companies haven’t in the past been willing to share,” she said

Not Google

The New York Forum Africa has just met in Libreville, Gabon.  Chinese business interests were well represented.  China-Africa trade has grown rapidly in the past decade. In 2000, the bilateral trade between the two sides was around $10 billion, while in 2012 it topped $200 billion. Chinese foreign direct investments in African nations is expected to reach $50 billion by 2015, according to a report published by Standard Bank, a South African lender.
In March last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo as part of his first overseas tour as president.
Earlier this month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made an eight day trip to Africa and visited Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya, as part of China’s efforts to expand economic ties with the continent. Li’s visit concluded with the signing of a number of deals on trade, energy, investment and development, including a call to expand cooperation in infrastructure and a pledge to increase Chinese aid to Africa by $12 billion (which includes $10 billion in loans and $2 billion for the China-Africa Development Fund).
In Kenya, Li signed agreements with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other East African leaders to build a $3.6-billion, 380-mile railway line connecting Nairobi to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Construction is expected to start in October and go on till March 2018 and will be part of a regional railway system that will extend through Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan. The Export-Import Bank of China will fund most of the project and the balance by the Kenyan government.
Attias says that China’s commitment to build infrastructure will help in forging long-term relationships with local communities in Africa.
“It’s important to understand the vision and strategies of the Chinese companies,” he says.
Wang Xiaoyong, secretary-general of China-Africa Business Council, says the railway agreement is an important milestone in Sino-African relations.
“Building the railway is a significant step for Kenya and other African countries. At the same time, it is also important for China to be part of this process and help in the actual construction,” Wang says.
According to Wang, constructing the railway line will involve not only financing and construction but also materials supply and vocational training of local workers. “Chinese investors can help on different fronts and it will help them build their reputation as investors in Africa,” Wang says.
Lankoande, the author of the book the political economy of China’s Foreign Direct Investments in Africa, says China stands out as an investor not by short term but “by long-term return on investment in Africa”.
“While oil and mining remain an important focus, Chinese investments are targeting sectors ranging from manufacturing to food. This diversification is very important for the African economy,” Lankoande says.  “I think the most important thing the Chinese investors can bring to Africa and make a difference is through technology transfer,” he says. “As we all know, China became a major player in technological innovation and it has several technologies that meet Africa’s needs, especially in terms of the features and cost,” Lankoande says.
Terming China, “a human resources power in the global market”, Lankoande says there is immense potential to create a win-win partnership with Africa in vocational training.
“China produces over 400,000 engineers every year, and this is huge compared to any other country in the world. These engineers can help make technology transfer from China to Africa a reality,” he says.
There are also opportunities for Sino-Africa technology transfer in natural resources also as Chinese engineers are facing the same development challenges that African engineers are striving to overcome, Lankoande says.
He says that most of the investment opportunities in Africa are still untapped. “Africa is the last frontier for growth,” Lankoande says. “Many African countries are generating wealth at a rate presently unmatched in any other part of the world and that makes them primary destinations for investment from all around the world.”
Opportunities with high return on investments exist in sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture and telecommunications, he says.
“Africa is a playground for ICT (information and communications technology) innovation, especially in the telecoms sector. With a mobile market of over 700 million people, Africa is definitely the place to be for any telecom company,” Lankoande says.
Chinese investors have already tapped into most of the industries including health, education, transport and storage sectors. There are now more than 1,600 Chinese development finance projects totaling $75 billion in more than 50 African countries.
Lankoande says Chinese investors are also facing challenges.  “These challenges are the political instability in some countries, macroeconomic instability, insufficient infrastructure and the lack of market insights.”