Briefing on CCCC’s Participation
in Jointly Building “the Belt and Road”
May 8, 2017
China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)
China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) is a global infrastructure player that is able to provide a whole-package solution, from financing, investment, consulting, planning, to engineering, construction, management and operation. The total value of contracts and agreements signed in the countries and regions along the Belt and Road exceeds 40 billion USD. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Colombo Port City and Mombasa-Nairobi Railway are some key projects invested and executed by CCCC. In 2016, CCCC’s international projects take about 14% of China’s total. We have signed over 100 contracts along the Belt and Road and the total contract value takes over 10% of the total contract value concerning the Belt and Road. We have signed 16 railway contracts and the total contract value takes about 60% of all new railway contracts signed by Chinese companies overseas. The market share of CCCC’s port machinery is over 80% and our products are used at over 200 terminals in 97 countries and regions of the world.
Since we started going global, in Belt and Road countries and regions, CCCC has accumulatively built 10,320 kilometers of road, 152 bridges, 95 deep-water berths, and 10 airports; delivered 754 container quay cranes; 2080 kilometers of railway are under construction or have the contract signed. As we implement the Belt and Road Initiative, we try to build bridge for communication, road for wealth, port for development and city for happiness. Bridge for communication will leap across long distance and misunderstanding, so that the local community and China can form heart-to-heart friendship; through building road for wealth, we can alleviate local poverty by building roads and railways; the port for development will open the local community further to the world and realize better development; in term of city for happiness, by investing and building new cities, new districts and new industrial parks, we can boost investment, create jobs, and raise livelihood of local community. We have many role model projects in all above four business sectors, which represent China’s advanced technology and experience to be shared with other developing countries.
Deliver high-quality infrastructure products for the world
Several years ago, Tajikistan President Office asked the Transportation Minister to tell us a story. An elderly living in Shah Heri Stan walked for one week and arrived in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. He waited at the gate of Presidential Palace for several days and insisted on meeting the President. Hearing of this, the President met him. The elderly knelt down the moment he saw the President, saying, “Thank you a lot for building Tajikistan-Uzbekistan Road for us. I walked along this road and arrived here. I have no pity after walking on such good road.” The President was very moved and asked his subordinates write down this anecdote and tell it to the Chinese government and project contractor.
For the past decades, CCCC has been building infrastructure along the Belt and Road and we realized by heart that those developing countries have great demands for infrastructure. The Chinese companies have obtained the world-leading systematic supply advantages as we go global. The Belt and Road Initiative will bridge the great demands and strong supply. This initiative prioritizes infrastructure connection, which is quite down-to-earth. We feel that each and every road, bridge, port and city we build injects strong momentum to regional economy.
Karakoram Highway is a key project under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CCCC is the builder of this highway. After completed, this highway will radiate 75,000 square kilometers of land and benefit about 15 million people. The well-connected road has revolutionized the local transportation, cutting the travel time from Raikot Bridge to Khunjerab Pass from 14 hours to 6 hours. The road also brings business opportunities, creates many local jobs, optimizes local industrial structure, boosts local tourism and gives birth to emerging sectors such as retailing and gems stone business. Another key project under CPEC is Gwadar Port. We manage to build an isolated small fishing village into a modernized mega port. The port, operated by the Chinese companies not only drives the local economic growth, but also becomes the nearest shipping hub for Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other inland countries in Central Asia. It is on the way to become a regional logistics and port shipping hub. CCCC has built Faquer Primary School in Gwadar.
As the largest port in east Africa, Mombasa Port in Kenya has an annual throughput of 22 million tons, while the existing meter-gauge railway transported 1.6 million tons of cargo in 2012. Mombasa-Nairobi Railway constructed and operated by CCCC will offer faster, safer and more reliable and modernized passenger and cargo transportation services. The designed cargo transportation capacity of 25 million tons will satisfy the needs from the port. Given the cargo mainly flows from Mombasa to Nairobi, according to calculation, the maximum cargo intensity from Mombasa to Nairobi in 2020, 2025 and 2035 is 5.61 million, 11.94 million and 20.93 million tons respectively. Transportation cost of Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is much lower than 0.1 USD per ton per kilometer per unit offered by road. 60% of cargo will be transported by the railway and the pressure undertaken by road will be reduced. Given rich tourism resources along the route and intense movement of people, a tourism train will travel between Mombasa and Nairobi at 120 km per hour while existing meter-gauge railway has its real operation speed lower than 40 km per hour. In 2015, Kenya President Kenyatta said, “Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is built jointly by friendly Chinese people and hardworking Kenyan people. People from Kenya and East Africa as a whole hope the railway will be completed as soon as possible so that they can benefit from it.” Kenyan government officials once predict that this railway will add 2 percentage points to local economy. It will promote interconnection of East Africa and contribute to East Africa railway network. It will strengthen the trade among Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and other inland countries in particular. In 2016, when Senegal President Sall visited the project site, he said “China contributes a lot to African economy by improving local infrastructure.” He said that Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, which connects Kenya with other neighboring countries, inspires other African countries earning for rapid development.
Colombo Port City invested and developed by CCCC integrates dredging, reclamation, first-level land development, and real-estate development. A new CBD will be created in Colombo. 269 hectares of land will be reclaimed, of which 178 can be used for commercial development. The total investment for first-level land development is nearly 1.4 billion USD and the value of second-level development exceeds 13 billion USD. This project will drive economy and livelihood of Sri Lanka. First, this project will improve status of Colombo, build the national image of Sri Lanka, attract international high-end professionals and introduce advanced technology abroad. Second, this project will offer high-quality infrastructure and attract more investors. Third, the project will create stable local jobs. 83,000 local jobs will be created after the project is completed.
Innovate business model and realize extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits
The Belt and Road Initiative is not solo, but chorus. This initiative brings tremendous opportunities for not only the Chinese companies, but also businesses along the Belt and Road, even those from other continents. It has also stimulated related countries and regional markets.
For the past three years, we feel that many countries are holding high expectations for the Belt and Road. Indonesian government proposed Maritime Highway to fit China’s Maritime Silk Road and signed many port investment and construction contracts with CCCC. When Ethiopian President Mr. Hailemariam met with CCCC, he expressed the hope to deepen our cooperation under the Belt and Road. When Mr. Schultz, Vice Chairman of German Social and Democratic Party and mayor of Hamburg, visited CCCC, he welcomed CCCC’s investment in Hamburg, which is the meeting point of the Belt and Road in Europe. When Mr. Chretien, the former Canadian Premier visited us with our government client, he recommended that the Sydney Port in Canada can be used for extension of the Belt and Road in North America.
CCCC adopts market-oriented approach, joins hands with financial institution, peer companies, upstream and downstream businesses, forming strategic alliance and building value network. The model integrating Chinese companies, local government, overseas industrial parks and overseas companies has earned initial success. CCCC furniture and construction material park in Ethiopia leverages local unique resources and advanced ceramics technique of Guangdong, and realizes win-win outcome by integrating production and distribution.
After completing Gwadar Port and Karakoram Highway, we are participating in a series of follow-up projects. Our overall plan is very clear: we plan to connect Gwadar and Kashgar International Land Port by CPEC, so that the port, city and businesses can be interconnected and realize win-win outcome.
Based on our experience, we have proposed two models that connect industries and transportation infrastructure, namely “Port-Industry-City” and “Land Port-Logistics-City”. These plans are bringing new momentum and opportunities for regional economic and social development.
Fulfillment of corporate social responsibility guided by new principles
CCCC works hard to share the responsibility of government in economic and social development, participate in regional economic development in an in-depth way and provide high-quality public services for government procurement. We try to realize common development and share value with local government, people and businesses. CCCC not only builds roads, bridges, and ports to realize “hard connection” of infrastructure on land, ocean and in air, but also realized “soft connection” by systematic and consistent fulfillment of corporate social responsibility, so as to honor China’s image building as a responsible and respectful company.
As we promote our four international premium brand, namely CCCC, CHEC, CRBC and ZPMC, we uphold legal compliance and try to become reliable business partner of the host country. For example, in Africa, we work hard to respond to Ten Cooperation Initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping during China-Africa Cooperation Forum and the value of key project that could be put under this framework exceed 100 billion USD. For example, CCCC has proposed the overall planning of the railway network in Africa and we are implementing our plan with actions. The projects under execution include Mombasa-Nairobi Railway that starts operation in the end of May and Nairobi-Malaba Railway of which the contract has been signed.
Through mega projects and competitive industries, we try to build education bases of local talents. For the past five years, we have created 140,000 local jobs and helped average labor grow into high-skilled workers. We provide training in three forms: we provide technical training for local staff when we execute projects; we help local universities establish related academic degrees and educate highly-skilled engineering professionals; we offer full scholarship for nearly 270 local students to study in China and cultivate desperately needed high-end local talents.
We uphold professionalism and work as emergency rescue team for local community. We are committed to emergency rescue and relief in the face of natural disasters. As we built Karakoram Highway, our project team has become the emergency rescue team. On January 4, 2010, a massive landslide hit the local community. Our project team entered the disaster-stricken area even earlier than the military, removed collapsed stones, excavated flood discharge channels, helped local government transfer victims and offered the first-hand surveying data on the site.
We uphold altruism and work as best volunteers for local society. We are committed to poverty reduction, education improvement, and local wellbeing. When we execute projects, we help build local schools, finance traditional events of local ethnic groups, and help improve local community. There are numerous examples in this respect. We have helped dug over 100 wells for local residents during the construction of Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Kenya.
CCCC’s commitment has earned wide recognition of local communities. In Pakistan, there is a tomb park where 88 Chinese workers are buried. These Chinese workers all contributed to China-Pakistan Friendship Road. A Pakistani elderly named Ali has been guarding this park for as long as 37 years. He said, “These Chinese are our friends and I am willing to do this for them. My son will continue doing so when I am too old to do this years later.”