Private enterprises important to Belt and Road projects

Nearly half of the Chinese enterprises taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative are privately owned. They are strong in the field of the construction of industrial parks, whereas state-owned enterprises are better in the construction of large-scale infrastructure, according to experts speaking at a forum on Belt and Road Initiative and private enterprises in Beijing on September 7.

Both developing and developed countries have a demand for infrastructure. Increasing international trade also entails efficient cross-border transport networks, said Zhu Guangyao, deputy minister of finance, at the forum. 

He said that a big challenge is to improve efficiency of funding mechanisms. It takes a joint effort from all relevant countries to expand the financing channels, in the long-term projects with a long payback time. Public Private Partnership is an increasingly important way of financing in the Belt and Road projects.

Jia Kang, chief economist of the China Academy of New Supply-side Economics, said that private enterprises play a special role in virtue of the PPP in the Belt and Road projects.

Data from the Finance Ministry shows that the PPP has raised more than 10 trillion yuan (US$1.55 trillion) for the Belt and Road projects, and more than 3 trillion yuan has been used, among which 45 percent is from the private enterprises.

Ou Xiaoli, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said that private enterprises are not only the main force, but also a fresh force. They have more strength in building industrial parks than the state-owned enterprises, which are more competitive in building large-scale infrastructure projects.