China Railway 20 Bureau Group prioritizes overseas push

China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corp, the State-owned construction giant, is actively seeking opportunities along the Belt and Road Initiative routes, to raise the overseas share of its business to a third within five years.

Li Lingxuan, deputy general manager of the Shaanxi-based company, said it has already made strong progress on landing potential road and coal-mining projects in Pakistan, and is preparing tender documents for a housing project in Thailand.

The company is also participating in an ongoing light rail project in India, and a city planning project in Mongolia.

With a view to widening its international reach, the corporation expanded its overseas network at the beginning of this year with three new offices in Thailand, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. It has also approved the planned openings of offices in Mozambique and Sierra Leone.

"The Chinese market for high-speed railways and expressways will become limited in the next few years, so we have to extend our business to other countries," said Li.

The initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The company's senior executives said they have recognized the growing importance of capital investment in any successful overseas bidding process, with engineering, procurement and construction financing becoming a prominent component within any contract.

As a State-owned enterprise, CR20G is not allowed by its parent company to make investments with its capital, but relies on bank funding instead.

Over the past three years, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd has provided the corporation with 4.02 billion yuan ($622 million) in yuan and foreign currency-denominated finance.

The lender also helped the company issue 500 million yuan of commercial paper, short-term debt security, and granted 189.33 million yuan in financing to its upstream suppliers.

Zhang Yu, deputy general manager of the Xi'an department at ICBC's Shaanxi branch, said: "China's economy has entered a 'new normal', a phrase describing the transition to slower but more sustainable growth.

"This signifies that Chinese companies must accelerate the steps they are taking to expand their business globally."

ICBC's role in helping CR20G's overseas push will continue with the development of services to increase the value of its foreign capital reserves, help with raising capital via equity financing, and providing consultancy services on projects along the Belt and Road, said Zhang.

Pan Guangwei, director-general of the China Banking Regulatory Commission's Shaanxi office, added that it has strengthened its support to Belt and Road-linked projects by helping major banks sign agreements involving hundreds of billions of yuan with the Shaanxi provincial government.

The banking regulator has also been actively providing commercial lenders with information on upcoming key projects, which allow them to plan their capital arrangements more efficiently.

By the end of June, Shaanxi banks had provided funding for 18 projects in countries along the routes worth 1.75 billion yuan.

During the same period, outstanding loans hit 8.85 billion yuan for 334 import and export projects associated with the initiative, and 8.54 billion yuan for the contracting of construction of 68 infrastructure projects.