The central government is working on a plan to dispatch
construction officials to Chinese embassies in foreign countries to
help Chinese builders grab more shares in the global market.
"The officials are expected to act as bridges between Chinese
construction enterprises and foreign markets," said Jin Dejun,
chief engineer with the Ministry of Construction.
The countries and regions where China has relatively more projects
or a huge potential market are the priority for the government to
send such diplomats to, Jin said yesterday at the 2002 China
International Forum of Construction Industries in Beijing.
"We are working with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Cooperation on the plan," Jin said.
But he didn't give further details.
The arrangement is among other measures to enhance Chinese
construction enterprises' competitiveness in the global context now
that China became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member.
"For our construction enterprises, WTO membership has created more
opportunities as more building markets across the world are going
to be open to China," said the chief engineer.
The Chinese government is determined to foster leading domestic
companies who vie with foreign rivals in all industries, he
said.
Jin also pointed out that the global presence of Chinese building
companies is far from satisfactory although China has extended its
project contracts and labor export to 180 countries and regions
across the world.
Statistics indicated that the total volume of international
projects in 2001 amounted to US$1 trillion, but Chinese companies
only received 1.35 percent of the total.
The major parts of China's international projects are still located
in Asia.
"The countries in other continents are our next targets," said
Jin.
"The cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (HKSAR) will be complementary and conducive
to boost the country's construction industries," said Lo Yiuching,
director of the HKSAR Highways Department at the same event.
He
called for intensified efforts to train construction people to
better cope with the thirst for talents in the sector.
At
the two-day forum which is part of the ongoing Fifth China Beijing
International High-Tech Expo, Jin also said the anticipated rapid
development of China's real estate industry will create enormous
opportunities for foreign businesses as well.
"The country expects to maintain an annual growth rate of 15
percent in its housing construction in the next few years, which
will require a large amount of money," Jin said.
China will build at least 1.5 billion square meters of housing in
urban areas and 3.5 billion square meters in rural areas by 2005,
officials said.
The Chinese government has already formulated a series of
preferential policies for overseas real estate developers,
including exemptions from investment regulatory taxes, easy access
to the raising of funds, and the freedom to remit after-tax profits
abroad, according to Jin.
With the implementation of the housing reform policy, construction
of ordinary residential housing has become a new focus of
investment in the real estate sector, Jin said.
Sources with the ministry said that more than 5,000 overseas real
estate enterprises, or 20 percent of the country's total, have
already participated in China's real estate development.
(China
Daily May 27, 2002)