As one of the main forms of implementing the "going out" strategy since China's reform and opening up, the undertaking of foreign contracted projects has grown from nothing, from small to large, from weak to strong with the strong wind of reform and opening up, so as to gain a firm foothold, sustained development and glory in the competitive international project contracting market.

Of the world's 250 largest international engineering contractors, 65 are Chinese. Chinese companies are responsible for one out of every five major infrastructure projects in the world. "China investment", "China design", "China construction", "China operation" and "China maintenance" can be seen everywhere in the contracting projects of Chinese enterprises. They have opened a "China brand" in the international market and are now writing a new chapter of sound and rapid development.

"Go out" to establish a Chinese brand

China's foreign economic cooperation began in the late 1970s. After China's accession to the world trade organization, the scale of China's outsourcing business expanded rapidly.

According to the China foreign contractors association, China has been engaged in foreign contracting projects since the reform and opening up in 1978, with EPC(design, procurement and construction) as the main mode, and has nearly 40 years of experience. At present, Chinese enterprises are engaged in foreign contracting business in 190 countries.

According to statistics, from 2002 to 2017, China's foreign contracted projects signed a total contract value of $1.98 trillion and completed a turnover of $1.34 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of over 20%. The international competitiveness of foreign contracting project enterprises has been greatly enhanced. From January to September this year, the turnover of China's foreign contracted engineering business reached 710.57 billion yuan, up by 2%(108.99 billion us dollars, up by 6.4%).

With the promotion and implementation of the "One Belt And One Road" initiative, the field of China's foreign contracting projects has ushered in a historic development opportunity. Over the past five years, the total volume of contracted projects reached us $517.9 billion, an average annual growth rate of 7 percent. China has brought more and more major projects to countries along the "One Belt And One Road", which has effectively promoted the development of local social economy, increased employment and improved people's livelihood.

While the scale of foreign contracted projects has been increasing year by year and its share of global business has been increasing, Chinese enterprises are also making great efforts in various professional fields and have become a force to be reckoned with in the international contracted project market.

In July this year, the largest power project invested by Chinese enterprises in Vietnam -- unit 1 of the first phase BOT project of Vietnam yongxin coal-fired power plant (" yongxin first phase project ") -- was officially put into commercial operation.

Chen lianqing, general manager of Vietnam yongxin phase I power co., LTD., told the international business daily that since the construction of the project started in July 2015, the accumulated investment has exceeded 600 million dollars, and the overall progress of the project has exceeded 60%. It is expected that the two units will be put into operation in June 2019. When completed and put into operation, it will generate about 8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which can meet 1/6 of the electricity demand in the key economic zone in southern Vietnam and greatly alleviate the "power shortage" in the region.

It is worthy of pride that the design and construction of this project completely adopt Chinese standards, truly realize "made in China", will drive China's domestic financing, design, equipment, construction "go out", so as to continuously improve the competitive position of China's power enterprises in the international market, and gradually establish China's power brand.

Zhongding international, which practices the "going out" strategy, also regards going abroad as an important content to expand the living and development space.

As the first multinational enterprise in China's coal industry to go abroad to contract projects, in 1991, zhongding international contracted to build a 14,000-hectare farmland irrigation project in simidiga, Algeria, which was the first step to enter Africa.

Hu lijian, chairman of zhongding international construction group co LTD, told China business daily: "we have always taken livelihood projects as our first choice to go to Africa. There, it has undertaken more than 30 projects including farmland irrigation, urban sewage discharge and government housing, most of which are related to people's livelihood. And a lot of local staff were hired and trained, and the lives of many families were improved.

The project model has changed significantly

With the promotion of a new round of opening up, the pattern of Chinese enterprises' foreign contracting projects is also changing quietly. Although the traditional construction general contracting business continues to play a very important role in the market, Chinese enterprises are also actively undertaking BOT, financing, project management mode (PPP) and other franchised projects, for example, China transportation has contracted the Jamaica highway project in the form of BOT.

Chinese contractors are implementing the EPC from the past to the present EPC+F, that is, adding Financing to the original design, procurement and construction to bring Chinese funds abroad. In this way, while contracting for international projects, Chinese enterprises have also solved part of the project financing of the sponsor, which is naturally more popular. In view of the characteristics of strong demand for infrastructure construction investment, long cycle time and slow recovery of costs, financing modes such as PPP and BOT have been favored in the large international infrastructure field, and have achieved initial results.