China Coal Mine Construction Group wins ¥450m Nepal project

By Dominic Ellis
New Nepal highway improvement project marks China Coal Mine Construction Group's first overseas project and supports the Belt and Road Initiative...

China Coal Mine Construction Group Corporation (CCMC) recently won the bid for the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation Mugling-Pokhara Highway Improvement Project in Nepal, in a contract valued around ¥450 million. 

Marking the group's first overseas highway project, the total length of the asphalt concrete highway is 38.883kms, with a design speed of 60 kilometers per hour and a maximum slope of 7 percent. 

The existing highway, aided by China in 1967, is a 7-meter-wide, double-lane asphalt road, passing through steep mountains, river valleys and plains, and spans 28 rivers. This project is expected to widen the highway to four lanes, with an aim to promote the development of local transportation and tourism. 

In recent years, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, CCMC has expanded its overseas market and explored energy facility construction, successfully winning a batch of projects in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India, Uzbekistan and Turkey. The photo shows the Gezidun interchange overpass of the Hefei-Anqing expressway constructed by CCMC.

Other Asian countries are also busy pursuing construction opportunities. Malaysia-listed Bina Puri Holdings has secured a contract worth Nepalese Rupee NR5.2billion (RM183 million) for the New Construction Project of Supreme Court Building Complex at Ramshahpath, Kathmandu.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis, founding partner and chairman of Dezan Shira and Associates, an Asia focused foreign investment consultancy, recently published a guide, Identifying Opportunities Within the Belt & Road Initiative, which discusses various investor opportunities.

The 142-page guide includes a breakdown of the legal, tax and financial structures comprising the BRI, adding in operational pitfalls and costs, as well as the latest opportunity developments and case studies. It provides country and continental case studies on the extent of the BRI and showcases where and how foreign investors may capitalise on infrastructure developments. 

However Australia-China trade relations are under strain again this month after Australia cancelled two Belt and Road Initiative deals, reportedly for being "inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations" (click here). 

While the Chinese economy may appear to be rebounding - reportedly growing 4.9 percent between July and September - its Belt and Road Initiative projects have been adversely affected by the worldwide disruption, according to a GlobalData report, published last November (click here). 

The pandemic is causing a slowdown in BRI investments, postponements in project timelines, and in some cases, suspension or even cancellation of projects in Africa and Asia due to local government spending curbs. The Chinese government has also been curtailing investments in BRI projects owing to domestic financial constraints amidst growing debt problems.

According to its Department of Roads, Nepal built an additional 7,500 miles of new paved, gravel, or dirt roads in 2017 and 2018. The road-building boom is being funded by international development agencies, the Nepalese government, and particularly China.

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