Heavyweight SOEs actively participate in the BRI, undertaking over 3,000 projects

China’s centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) had more than 7 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) of overseas assets in total as of the end of 2017, with their overseas units reaching 4.7 trillion yuan in revenues and 106.4 billion yuan in profits annually, a senior official said on Tuesday.

These SOEs have actively participated in the Belt and Road development, undertaking over 3,000 projects in the past five years, Weng Jieming, deputy head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said at a press briefing.

“The firms have engaged in the construction of railways, ports, highways, communications networks and other infrastructure projects in countries and regions along the Belt and Road,” said Weng.

“In energy and resource areas, the companies cooperated on more than 60 projects on oil and natural gas exploration in over 20 countries, in line with the countries’ demands for economic development.”

The central SOEs also invested in a large number of industrial and manufacturing projects to help local economies upgrade.

“The companies played a positive role in improving local people’s livelihood,” Weng said.

The firms will continue to optimize their models of business cooperation, based on mutual benefits, sound planning and risk controls, Weng noted.

“They will also strengthen cooperation with Chinese private firms, local firms in countries along the Belt and Road route, and international corporations to better guard against risks,” Weng added.