BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China has become the sixth largest engineering contractor in the world with a turnover of 21.76 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, according to the China International Contractors Association (Chinca).
The turnover represents a growth of 24.6 percent from the previous year, Chinca deputy president Diao Chunhe said at the 2006 Global Construction Summit which opened on Wednesday.
New contracts signed by Chinese contractors in 2005 totaled 29.6 billion dollars, up 24.2 percent.
Diao said the past year has seen Chinese contractors continuing to expand their market shares. In India, a market that Chinese firms have been vying for a long time without success, new contracts won by Chinese contractors in 2005 amounted to 1.7 billion dollars.
In Iran, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, contracts going to Chinese firms all hit new highs with the value of contracts won in each market exceeding one billion dollars.
Chinese contractors also performed impressively in the United States, the world's leading market, as well as in East Europe and Latin America.
The success of Chinese contractors is highlighted by the amount of major projects they have won, Diao said, adding that Chinese firms are receiving wider recognition
In 2005, Chinese contractors signed 49 contracts worth over 100million dollars each. The Federation Tower in Moscow will be built by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, one of the biggest engineering contractors in China.
Located in Moscow's future business center, the 340-meter-high skyscraper is set to become the new landmark in the Russian capital.
Another encouraging development, according to Diao, is that more Chinese firms have learnt to work as a group in competing for large projects. Despite their rapid expansion, Diao said Chinese contractors also face major challenges.
"The major part of their businesses are concentrated in the lower-end market where profit is quite low," he said. Chinese contractors must change their model of growth and pursue a new model that will be intelligence, technology and capital-intensive, he said.
"They must push for technical innovations and develop their owncore technologies so that their competitive edge in the international market shall not depend on their low costs alone," Diao said. Enditem
