Chinese contractors see fast business growth along Belt and Road

Countries taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative have become a fast-growing market for China's project contractors, according to the China International Contracted Project Development Report 2016-2017recently issued in Beijing by the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA).

Business revenues from contracted projects overseas hit US$159.4 billion in 2016, up 3.5 percent year-on-year. Of this figure, US$76 billion came from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, a9.7 percent increase. The newly-inked contracts were valued at US$244 billion, increasing 16.2 percent over 2015.

The industry report said transportation, electricity and construction projects have become the fastest-growing fields, and foreign projects not only boost the "going out" of relevant Chinese products, equipment, technologies and services, but strongly promote sustainable social and economic development of host countries, winning wide praise from local governments and residents.

The Chinese government encourages capable and credible Chinese corporations to engage in railway, road, port, electricity and telecommunication infrastructure projects in countries along the Belt and Road, so as to improve regional interconnectivity and bring tangible benefits to local people.

China will provide another 100 billion yuan (US$14.65 billion) to the Silk Road Fund to further support building of the Initiative. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will provide 250 billion yuan and 130 billion yuan in special loans respectively to projects related to the Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative effectively promotes Chinese project contractors' overseas business. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show the amount of contracts newly signed by Chinese enterprises in Pakistan reachedUS$11.58 billion in 2016, a 112 percent increase from 2013, when China first proposed the Initiative. The revenues increased by 96 percent to US$7.27 billion between 2013 and 2016.

Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Myanmar in Southeast Asia attach great importance to improving their transport infrastructure and regional connectivity through implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

China-Africa cooperation on railway construction benefits local economy and people. Take the Mombasa-Nairobi railway in Kenya as an example. The railway, which went into operation on May 31,boosted the country's GDP by 1.5 percentage points annually and created 46,000 jobs during its construction.

In addition, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and the Lagos-Cano railway have also begun operating.

All of these rail lines were built with Chinese standards, technologies and equipment.

More overseas projects contracted to Chinese enterprises are using the "build-operate-transfer" or "public-private partnership" mode, which will help increase their competitiveness in the international market, said Wang Zhihua, commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan.