General

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the initiative of jointly building the "the Belt and Road". Since the proposal was put forward, the trade between China and countries along the "the Belt and Road" has become increasingly close, and the trade vitality between private enterprises and countries along the "Belt and Road" has been further stimulated. According to customs data, China's private enterprises will import and export 7.85 trillion yuan to countries along the line in 2022, an increase of 26.7%. According to customs data, it will account for 56.8% of the total import and export value of China and countries along the line in the same period, an increase of 3.3 percentage points over the previous year.

The "the Belt and Road" has set up a broad stage for private enterprises to "go global", but at the same time, private enterprises are also facing risks and challenges in the process of "going global". Experts believe that private enterprises in the process of participating in the construction of the "the Belt and Road" mainly face the challenges of unstable world political situation, imperfect business environment in the host country, and high costs of information collection and analysis. It is suggested that relevant departments should speed up supporting regulations and rules, and improve the information service system of mutual assistance among the government, enterprises, and chambers of commerce.

Seize the opportunity

High quality participation of private enterprises in the construction of the "the Belt and Road"

According to customs data, 76 sets of transformer equipment with a value of 380 million yuan produced by TBEA Hengbian Company were shipped in order recently, and the power transmission and transformation equipment was exported in batches to Mozambique, Nigeria, Uruguay, Kazakhstan and other countries in Africa, South America and Central Asia.

It is reported that TBEA has provided high-tech equipment and system integration solutions for more than 70 countries, achieved the export of China's advanced power standards to the world, and led the export of billions of dollars of China's mechanical and electrical products and tens of thousands of person-times of labor services. TBEA has been listed in the world's top 250 engineering contractors in the Engineering News Record (ENR) for six consecutive years. According to customs data, up to now, TBEA's projects in Bangladesh, Uganda, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Gambia and other places are being steadily implemented.

Hu Nan, Vice President of TBEA Co., Ltd., said that thanks to the continuous deepening and implementation of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", TBEA gave full play to the regional advantages of Xinjiang, actively participated in the implementation of the "going out" strategy, and realized the transformation from product exports to engineering services to the export of China's advanced power technology standards.

According to customs data, in recent years, the enthusiasm of private enterprises to participate in the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" continues to increase. According to the Survey and Analysis Report on the Top 500 Private Enterprises in China in 2022 released by the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, 195 of the top 500 private enterprises participated in the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" in 2021, an increase of 4 over 2020. From the perspective of investment intention, in the next three years, a total of 287 top 500 enterprises are interested in participating in the construction of the "the Belt and Road", accounting for 57.40% of the top 500.

"We will more actively participate in the joint construction of the 'the Belt and Road', rely on advanced technologies in the field of green energy-saving power transmission and transformation, continue to increase efforts to expand overseas markets, share energy-saving, intelligent and automated power construction technologies with countries around the world, and use more 'quality projects' and' landmark projects' to benefit more countries and people along the line." said Li Bianqu, general manager of TBEA Import and Export Corporation.

Face the challenge

Take multiple measures to escort enterprises to "go out"

"In recent years, Chinese private enterprises have actively participated in the joint construction of the 'the Belt and Road' and achieved gratifying results, but they also face certain challenges in this process." Bo Wenguang, vice president of the Binhai Development Research Institute of Nankai University, said that at present, private enterprises face three major challenges in "going global". "The political risk in the host country is the biggest and most uncontrollable risk faced by private enterprises in the process of 'going global'. There are multiple possibilities of complementation, win-win, overlap, substitution and competition between the 'the Belt and Road' construction and the interests of some major countries and countries along the road, which brings certain uncertainty to private enterprises' going global '."

At the same time, many private enterprises also face the dilemma of low infrastructure level and overall connectivity of the host country when "going out". "This makes the enterprises that invest to build and operate factories abroad have large transportation costs, long time, high information search costs, and face the risk of low overall profit margin or even loss, which largely restricts the pace of private enterprises' 'going out'," said Bo Wenguang.

In addition, countries along the "the Belt and Road" have very different histories, cultures, religions and national conditions. For private enterprises preparing to "go global", collecting and analyzing these information will cost a lot, which adds a challenge for private enterprises to "go global".

In view of this, Bo Wenguang suggested that the relevant departments should speed up the implementation of supporting regulations and rules, introduce laws and relevant supporting regulations on overseas investment of domestic enterprises and individuals as soon as possible, and clearly define the relevant rules, so as to better provide legal protection for private enterprises to enter the "the Belt and Road" market. For the political instability risk, financial and investment risk of the countries along the line, the relevant competent departments should work together to do a good job in early warning and emergency plans to better safeguard the relevant interests of enterprises.

In terms of improving the construction of the information service system, Bo Wenguang believes that governments at all levels should establish the relevant project database of "going out" in their jurisdictions, so as to provide more targeted policy services and information consulting services for enterprises and projects. At the same time, social organizations such as chambers of commerce, associations, overseas Chinese business associations, and intermediary institutions such as accounting, taxation, lawyers, and consultants should also give full play to the advantages of professional technology and market network to provide business support and information services for private enterprises to "go global". Universities, think tanks and other professional institutions should integrate and improve the public service platform for overseas investment, and timely release the political environment, market demand, industrial characteristics, tax policies, investment projects and other information of countries along the "the Belt and Road".