China to back offering services overseas

China is to support domestic design and consulting enterprises in offering services to overseas investment and construction projects, aiming to innovate the modes of outbound investment and cooperation and push forward Belt and Road development.

As the Belt and Road initiative was further implemented and the process of building a new open economy was accelerated, China is attaching greater importance to the project design and consulting industry, especially companies’ overseas business, according to the notice released on Wednesday by 19 government departments including the Ministry of Commerce.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the capacity of domestic design consulting enterprises has been continuously enhanced. The firms have also participated in overseas projects, driving domestic technology, standards, equipment and management to go abroad and become a new highlight of China's outbound investment.

However, there are still problems in the development of the industry, such as small business scale, weak core competitiveness, low level of internationalization, few top brands and an imperfect policy promotion system, the notice said.

Under fierce competition in the international market, it is of great significance to inject new impetus into the development of contracting foreign construction projects, to innovate the modes of foreign investment and cooperation, and to push forward Belt and Road development, it said.

A target was set that the country's project design and consulting industry should have stronger competitiveness by 2035, with the standard, service and security, policy support and talent training systems being gradually improved.