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Infrastructure and construction to China

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(Last updated: 25 Mar 2012)

Trends and opportunities

The market

China is to accelerate construction of urban public facilities by investing as much as CNY7 trillion during its 12th Five-Year Plan from 2011 to 2015.

It is estimated that investment on urban rail transit is to surpass CNY700 billion in the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

(Source: China Daily, 'China to invest 7t yuan for urban infrastructure in 2011-15', 13 May 2010)

China will also invest heavily on transportation, and may invest CNY3 trillion on railway construction during the next five year, and according to the airport development plan, by 2020 China will have 244 civil airports. (Source: Dow Jones Newswire)

By 2015, 36 large and medium sized cities will have sewer systems covering 100 per cent of urban area with sewerage collection and treatment rate reaching over 85 per cent. All cities will safely handle domestic wastes with non-hazardous treatment rate over 85 per cent.

In the energy and utilities sectors, the focus will be on efficiency and low carbon generation, with nuclear and renewable featuring strongly in the projects pipeline. Power grid will be further developed with an estimated investment of CNY17 billion on smart grid construction during the 12th Five-Year Plan. (Source: APCO Worldwide, China's 12th Five-Year Plan, 10 December 2010)

In the housing sector, the government has pledged the construction of another 50 million low cost housing units. While this will drive construction, the plan remains unclear in terms of allocations between the central and state governments and implementation.

The west regional infrastructure development will have investment in many projects including railway, highway, rural irrigation and other utility development.

There are several sources of funding for projects:

  • Central government budget
  • National bond
  • Loans from multilateral funding agencies, such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation
  • Local government budget
  • Private investment

Opportunities

There are increasing openings for Australian exporters and investors in the infrastructure sector. Many of these opportunities will be in China’s more underdeveloped western region, which covers 10 provinces and 56 per cent of China’s land mass.

Opportunities for Australian businesses include:

  • Transportation (eg. highways, high speed trains, urban metro systems, etc)
  • Gas pipeline design, construction and management
  • Natural gas reticulation projects
  • Renewable energy and smart grid systems
  • Air navigation systems and airport construction services
  • Ports construction and management
  • Environmental (eg. wastewater treatment, surface water management, air pollution control, etc)
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Tariffs, regulations and customs

China’s customs administration collects import customs duties on import commodities, industrial and commercial consolidated tax, and regulating tax on import commodities.

Foreign exporters sometimes experience difficulties in understanding the application of customs classifications, tariff rates and import controls by local customs officials.

Industry standards

Industry standards for infrastructure projects vary depending on the nature of the project (eg. gas, power, etc) and the product or service to be provided to the project. For building and construction materials there are two commonly applied standards in China:

  • National Industry Standard or Industry Standard of the Ministry of Construction (in Chinese language only).
  • Quality assurance system for building materials manufacturing - ISO 9001 and ISO 9002.
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Marketing your products and services

Market entry

Early identification of opportunities is the key to Australian business success in infrastructure projects. Australian companies can consider several possible options for market entry:

  • Direct export via local agents or distributors.
  • Local investment – joint venture, partnership, wholly owned.
  • Manufacturing localisation, including technology transfer.
  • Development of a strong in-market presence is important to support market development, particularly where products and technologies require service support.
  • For supply to large projects, local governments sometimes require the establishment of a local presence.
  • The Chinese design institutes often play a critical role in the approval, recommendation and assessment of new products for infrastructure projects.

Distribution channels

Distribution channels will vary depending on the type of project and its location.

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Links and industry contacts

Government, business and trade resources for China

State Development and Planning Commission – www.sdpc.gov.cn
The Ministry of Finance – www.mof.gov.cn
China Economic Information Network – www.cei.gov.cn
Chinabidding.com – www.chinabidding.com.cn

Media

China Daily – www.chinadaily.com.cn

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Contact details

The Australian Trade Commission – Austrade – is the Australian Government’s trade, investment and education promotion agency.

Through a global network of offices, Austrade assists Australian companies to grow their international business, attracts productive foreign direct investment into Australia and promotes Australia’s education sector internationally.

For more information on how Austrade can assist you, contact us on:

Australia ph: 13 28 78 | Email: info@austrade.gov.au

A list of Austrade offices (in alphabetical order of country) is also available.

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