Domestic firms and financiers boost international links

Since China began to implement the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, domestic companies have enhanced their cooperation with the regions along the route.

A number of companies with comparative advantages in industries such as metals and new energies, have expanded their operations overseas, aiming to boost local growth and achieve win-win results.

China Development Bank, a major development finance institution focusing on raising infrastructure funds, has played an important role in helping Chinese enterprises to expand abroad.

Laterite nickle project

Northwest China's mining and metals specialist Jinchuan Group and Indonesian company WP &RKA broke ground on their joint laterite nickel ore project at the end of 2016 in the Southeast Asian nation's northern province of Maluku.

The total investment for the project is projected to reach $57.13 million, with China Development Bank providing long-term and medium-term loans worth $34 million to the project.

Based in Northwest China's Gansu province, Jinchuan operates the largest production facilities for nickle-cobalt and platinum, and the third-largest production plant for copper in China.

Indonesia is the first overseas investment project in the Belt and Road regions to be funded by a company from Gansu province since the Chinese government began to implement the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives in 2013.

China Development Bank began to cooperate with Jinchuan in 2016 by entering into a lending agreement for the project.

Including a nickle-iron smelting works and an auxiliary power plant, the project is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2018.

Using advanced energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies and equipment, at full planned capacity the facility will be able to handle 1.7 million metric tons of ore and produce 200,000 metric tons of nickle and iron annually.

New energies

Backed by syndicated loans from Chinese banks, a photovoltaic power plant recently became operational in the South Asian country of Pakistan.

The plant in Punjab province is a priority project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, which was proposed by Premier Li Keqiang in 2013 when he visited the country. China's Zonergy financed and worked on the construction of the project, while China Development Bank and another Chinese bank formed a syndicate to offer a total of $120.6 million in loans.

The power plant is expected to generate 160 million kilowatt-hours of electricity this year, meeting demands from 70,000 households for daily electricity use.

The project's total installed capacity will top 900 megawatts when fully operational and it is expected to be the largest single plant in the world for photovoltaic power generation.

Developed countries such as Australia, which also lies along the Belt and Road route, are presenting new opportunities for Chinese companies to expand overseas.

Construction on the White Rock Wind Farm, in which Chinese companies have invested and which China Development Bank has financially supported, is proceeding smoothly after the project launched in May 2016.

China's Goldwind Science& Technology and CECEP Wind-Power commissioned and invested in the wind farm in the state of New South Wales, with a consortium consisting of five Chinese and Australian banks providing loans. China Development Bank alone agreed to lend $55.9 million to the project.

Australian Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton said he sees the project as "further evidence of stability and confidence returning to the renewable energy industry".

Thornton said, "The White Rock Wind Farm will deliver substantial economic benefits to the region." He added, "People here are incredibly supportive of renewable energy."

Workers assemble solar panels at the Zonergy photovoltaic power plant in Punjab province, Pakistan. When fully operational, this will be the largest single plant in the world for solar power generation.

(China Daily 03/13/2017 page15)