Cooperation helps tap new growth points

The Belt and Road Initiative will continue to serve as an effective momentum to boost revenue growth of both foreign and Chinese companies as infrastructure and industrial capacity exportation are accelerating in many countries, said business executives.

"It is important for foreign companies to realize the Belt and Road Initiative will generate new market growth points," said Denis Depoux, senior partner of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

The infrastructure, service and trade networks of the Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 encompass more than 60 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa and about 4.4 billion people.

A big chunk of the strategy is in infrastructure investments.

"China is increasing the share of Chinese technologies, but there is also a significant share of international technologies," said Depoux. "Chinese companies, primarily State-owned enterprises, cooperate with foreign enterprises in third party countries along the two routes."

Global companies including ABB Group, Schneider Electric, Simens AG, Philips Lighting Holding BV and General Electric have all made plans to form more partnerships with China's power, infrastructure, transportation and energy companies to tap the opportunities created by the Belt and Road Initiative, especially engineering, procurement and construction projects.

"Many of these opportunities come from countries' surging demand for public services, manufacturing and infrastructure projects, especially in fast-growing economies such as Turkey, Poland and Qatar," said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB's power grids division worldwide.

The company provided a 220 kV main substation solution to Sinopec for its EPC project in Atyrau Refinery, Kazakhstan, as well as supplying a 6,000 metric ton per day cement processing line in Saudi Arabia for China National Building Material Corp and 420KV switchgears to China Machinery Engineering Co for Soyo power plant in Angola.

Li Gang, vice-president of the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that the Belt and Road Initiative, international production capacity cooperation and the development of AIIB are complementary to many countries' economies.