China and partner economies’ efforts to improve connectivity on the Belt and Road Initiative and national development programmes will add new growth momentum to bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
BEIJING: Market watchers and senior business executives say China and partner economies’ efforts to improve connectivity on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and national development programmes will add new growth momentum to bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
It will also boost the world’s economic recovery, they added.
Experts believe that combining the BRI with other national development strategies, such as Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and Egypt’s Vision 2030, will increase trade and investment between China and those partners in areas such as the digital economy, traditional and new infrastructure, clean energy, agriculture, and modern services, as well as pave the way for future global governance reform.
According to Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the Economic Policy Commission with the China Association of Policy Science in Beijing, China and countries such as Pakistan, Serbia, and Thailand are also leveraging their comparative strengths and expanding market access to each other.
For instance, China has been eager to assist Saudi Arabia in charting a new path of economic diversification and integration with the BRI following the Saudi government’s unveiling of Vision 2030 in 2016.
Saudi Arabia’s strategic framework aims to cut dependence on oil and transform the kingdom into a leading industrial powerhouse and global trading and logistics hub.
China has signed cooperative documents with 20 Arab countries and the Arab League on jointly building the BRI, with more than 200 large projects in energy and infrastructure having been implemented, according to China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Apart from developing oil-related energy projects in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries, China Energy Engineering Group Co Ltd, the Beijing-based state-owned enterprise known as Energy China, began construction on a 2.6-gigatonne photovoltaic project in Saudi Arabia in mid-November.
The project, located in Al Shuaibah in Jeddah, Makkah province, will be equipped with advanced photovoltaics (PV) modules. It is expected to be the largest individual PV project in the Middle East and North Africa, providing 3,000 jobs for locals, said Xiong Gaoxia, vice-president of China Energy Co Ltd, an Energy China subsidiary.
The project is designed to help cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 3.12 million tonnes per year, he added.
“It is also designed to speed up the country’s energy structure transformation as well as green and low-carbon development.”
About 80% of the business of China Construction Fifth Bureau Installation Engineering Co Ltd (CCFBIEC) used to be building office and residential blocks as well as hotels and shopping malls, while industrial manufacturing and infrastructure projects were rarely involved, according to the company’s chairman, Yang Yong.
But after discovering the surging demand created by many countries’ industrial upgrades and urbanisation booms, the Changsha, Hunan province-based state-owned enterprises (SOE) has adjusted the direction of its businesses, Yang said.
Infrastructure and manufacturing projects now account for 80% of its domestic business and 100% of its business abroad.
In recent years, the company has taken part in construction, such as the tunnel for Algeria’s North-South Highway and the expansion of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It also built manufacturing facilities for Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo in India.
Based on its annual workload in overseas markets, Yang said the company is able to provide up to 1,200 jobs a year for local communities. It also helps local workers improve their skills by offering training courses.
After developing a number of big-ticket projects in countries such as Algeria, India, Bangladesh and South Sudan, CCFBIEC will focus on South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe to support the growth of the BRI and other countries’ development strategies, Yang said.
China’s SOEs, especially those that are centrally administered, have lengthy experience in setting up and managing transportation, energy, telecommunications and power projects, based on their financing ability, technological advantages and management expertise.
The government has long encouraged them to take advantage of more market opportunities related to BRI development, said Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute in Beijing. — China Daily/ANN
