Construction company banks on technology to boost fortunes

A leading construction company has said it will contribute more to high-quality infrastructure development by speeding up technology innovation and strategic transformation.

Du Bo, a project manager with State-owned Bridge and Tunnel Engineering Co Ltd, said the company has been undertaking more projects in pipeline construction, sewage treatment and wetland parks in recent years.

"To ensure project quality, we are supervising the whole construction process, starting from project approval, to design and construction. The company will implement the projects in line with national policies," Du said.

The company is affiliated with CCCC First Highway Engineering Co Ltd. CCCC stands for China Communications Construction Co Ltd, a publicly traded company.

"In the past, the infrastructure construction sector emphasized speed too much. At that time, we did not pay much attention to environmental protection, harmony between man and nature in the process of construction, while the quality of management was not that advanced," Du said.

"The problems have become more prominent in recent years. Therefore, construction companies like us have followed the guidance of the country to place greater emphasis on quality," he said.

The company recently completed reconstructing several sections of the Jinhai Road ahead of schedule. Jinhai Road is a 26-kilometer main road across Hohhot, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

According to Du, the project was complicated, and construction time was tight because it was located in the downtown area. "Nevertheless, we managed to finish the project five days before the deadline, without sacrificing quality," he said.

According to the 2019 Government Work Report, China will expand effective investment, accelerating the implementation of a number of key projects.

Official data showed China's infrastructure investment increased 4.1 percent between January and June this year, with growth picking up from 4 percent in the January-to-May period. But the growth pace has retreated from years of near 20 percent expansion.

In the first six months, China's fixed-asset investment in transport infrastructure climbed 4.8 percent to 1.37 trillion yuan ($194 billion), official data showed. The growth accelerated from an increase of 0.7 percent registered in 2018.

Du said after 40 years of rapid development, a network of expressway and high-speed railway lines has been formed, and the transportation system in coastal cities in the east is maturing.

He predicted that China's central and western regions will have more demand for infrastructure construction in the upcoming decade, amid the country's shift to high-quality development.

Zhou Song, an analyst with Guosen Securities Co, said the growth rate of infrastructure investment is expected to rise in the second half of this year, and reach 10 percent for the whole year.

"The central and western regions still have large demand, with ecological environment projects remaining the focus," Zhou said in a research note.