In The First Quarter, The "One Belt And One Road" Infrastructure Project Completed A Slight Decrease In Quality And A Consensus On Quality Development.

"With the slowing down of the world economic recovery and the rise of reverse globalization and trade protectionism, the national infrastructure development index of" one belt and one road "has dropped steadily from 121 in 2018 to 119. Fang Qiuchen, President of the China Foreign Contractors Association, said at the tenth international infrastructure Summit Forum held in Macao in May 30th.

According to the Ministry of commerce data, in the first quarter of this year, Chinese enterprises signed a new contract for foreign contracted projects along the "one belt and one road" project to complete the turnover of 18 billion 10 million US dollars, accounting for 54.5% of the total period of the same period, down 4% from the same period last year.

In May 30th, the China contractors Engineering Association issued the "one belt and one way" national infrastructure development index report 2019 (for short). The report points out that the "four directions" index of the "one belt and one road" situation is complicated and changeable, which has led to a slight decrease in the scores of the first tier index of the development environment, development demand, development cost and development heat. However, the total score of the development index remained at a relatively high level in the past five years.

The report takes 71 key countries (including 63 "one belt and one road" countries and 8 Portuguese speaking countries) as the research object, and analyzes the development of infrastructure industry from four dimensions of development environment, development demand, development cost and development heat, and forecasts the development trend of infrastructure industry in the next 2 to 3 years.

In May 23rd of this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the global economic growth rate in 2019 will be reduced to 3.3%, the slowest growth since 2016. This is the third time that IMF has lowered the global growth outlook in six months. It is also pointed out that if the Sino US trade dispute is aggravated, the overall growth rate of the world economy may be lowered by 0.3 percentage points to 3% of what is regarded as the "ups and downs" line.

From the perspective of segmenting industries, the development demand index of transportation and energy industries in the "belt and road" countries is generally higher than that in other industries, and will remain a hot spot in infrastructure investment in the short term. According to the statistics of global capital construction projects by BMI, the number of newly signed contracts in the transportation industry in 2018 was the highest in the "one belt and one road" area in 2018, and the new contract amount in road and Bridge industries accounted for 47.5%.

Discussion on high quality development

Sustainable and high quality is one of the focuses of this international infrastructure forum. A number of experts interviewed said that the era of winning the bid at low prices has come to an end.

"Many people are talking about the lowest cost. In Singapore, we are not just looking at the low cost, but also the quality. The quality may account for 70% to 80% of the weight, and the price only accounts for the weight of 20%-30%. We are not just looking at the lowest cost, but more about quality. In the long run, this is a key factor to consider. " Liao Wenliang, chairman of Singapore Singapore Airport group, said.

"When bidding, the lowest price contractor will not necessarily have the best quality and best return, so we must analyze it in a systematic way, and analyze its cost from the whole life cycle of the project, including the maintenance and operation of the project after completion." Zhu Xian, vice president and chief operating officer of the new development bank, said.

"High standards mean that projects can be sustainable throughout the whole life cycle, rather than for short-term consideration. In these major infrastructure projects, improving standards, advocating international and global cooperation, pursuing the concept of environmental protection and green development should be integrated into the whole process of project design and construction, and ensure the sustainable operation of the project." Chen Qihua, global vice president of Caterpillar (Caterpillar), a us heavy machinery manufacturer, told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter.

In fact, sustainable and high quality is also important for attracting international private capital to participate in infrastructure development along the "one belt" road. Tao Kuangchun, chairman of the Asia Pacific region and China, said: "it is difficult to meet the needs of infrastructure investment in the countries along the coast by relying solely on the resources and resources of the public sector, so attracting the participation of international private capital is of vital importance." Tao Kuangchun said. At the same time, although China has made a lot of contributions to the global infrastructure investment gap, the financial resources of the Chinese side alone will not be able to fully meet the huge demand for infrastructure investment in the "one belt along the way".

In the coming period, the funding gap of global infrastructure construction and operation will continue to expand. According to the prediction of major international agencies in recent years, the gap between supply and demand of global infrastructure investment in the future is about one trillion US dollars or even higher each year.

As a new trend of infrastructure financing innovation, the enthusiasm of private capital participation is gradually increasing. According to the PPI database of the world bank, private investment in infrastructure in the "one belt and one way" state in 2017 increased significantly, reaching 62 billion 140 million US dollars, a sharp increase of 64.7% over the same period last year.

In the view of Joachim von Amsberg, vice president of the Asian infrastructure investment bank, infrastructure projects such as ports, railways and other trade promotion projects are having a positive impact on the economic growth of some countries, but they need careful management to avoid the "big white elephant" project.

"In terms of high quality investment, we have many international standards. For example, competitive bidding, all participants are willing to participate, because local governments know that these standards can give local impetus to economic development. For contractors, there is no need to worry about bidding fraud. So international standards are very important for sustainable investment. He admitted.

Africa's infrastructure investment gap is huge.

In recent years, the African continent has become a popular gold rush for many Chinese enterprises to enter the sea. High speed economic growth, demographic dividend and Internet development have injected unlimited development momentum into Africa. Data show that China is Africa's largest infrastructure financing country, with an average investment of US $11 billion 500 million a year in 2012-2016 years, accounting for 15% of the total financing.

Africa is the continent with the lowest degree of urbanization, but its urbanization speed is 11 times that of Europe. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, special adviser to the African Development Bank and director of the cabinet committee, said: "the premise of rapid urbanization in Africa is that Africa should vigorously expand its infrastructure. By 2050, we will have 2 billion 500 million of the new urban population, especially in many second tier cities.

"Africa needs infrastructure investment very much. Without these support, our possible GDP growth will lose 2% annually, and our total economic growth will lose 40%." He admitted.

At present, communications, roads, ports and railway facilities in Africa are far from perfect. According to the BCG 2018 report, the cost of goods transportation and distribution in Africa is 320% of the value of the commodity itself, compared with 200% in South America, 140% in East Asia / North America and 90% in Europe.

"According to the latest statistics, the euro area is still the world's most aggregated trade bloc. Their integration degree exceeds 73%, Asia is 52%, while the African continent is only 15% now, and the intra African trade growth is lagging behind, mainly due to the long-term investment gap in infrastructure, and the importance of the hard and soft infrastructure of African Development and regional economic integration is also becoming more prominent," John Adomakoh, the Minister of Finance and export development of the African import and export bank, said.

He admitted to reporters that the interconnection of roads and railways on the African continent is very poor. Broadly speaking, Africa's infrastructure financing needs are between 130 billion and 170 billion dollars a year, accounting for 40% of the total expenditure.

"To comply with the general trend of market development and actively respond to the" one belt and one way "initiative, under the framework of bilateral government cooperation, we should select some commercially viable projects that are strategic and able to drive local economic development, especially sustainable development projects. Making full use of the advantages of host country government enterprises and market resources, we will promote the development of mining, power and land port industrial parks, cluster development, and form an industrial chain, forming a virtuous circle. Shi Yang, vice chairman and President of China Africa Development Fund Co., Ltd.

He disclosed that the China Africa Fund has invested more than 90 projects in 36 countries in Africa, investing $3 billion 300 million in real terms and leveraging about 23000000000 dollars in non investment.