Chinese Builders Abroad Contributing to Belt & Road

Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada (seventh left) attends a ceremony in the Canas region, in March, in which a China-aided urban water supply plant built by CREC4 is officially handed over to local operators. [LONG BIN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Winning accolades

Chen said he was proud when the CREC4-built Development Center for Disabled Children in Mongolia was handed over and put into use in January 2019.

"My deepest thanks to CREC4 for building such a very modern and excellent hospital for us," said Galbadrah, appointed by the Mongolian Ministry of Health to take charge of the center. Like many Mongolians, Galbadrah goes by only one name.

Mongolia's Ministry of Construction and Urban Development gave the project its Best Architecture Award for 2019, and Chen was given an Excellent Builder award.

In 2017, when Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh－who was prime minister at the time－saw the country's first expressway built by CREC4, he remarked, "We are very happy."

He said the six-lane expressway, which had just opened and leads to the new airport in the capital, Ulan Bator, "can play a very good role".

"The quality is very good and is of a very high standard," he said of the 32.2-kilometer highway, with a designed driving speed of 80 kilometers per hour. Work began on the expressway in June 2016.

In Angola, a CREC4-built 76-km highway, crossing the country's mountainous northern area, was fully completed on March 24.

The Quitexe-Ambuila highway in Uige province, dubbed a "Road of Friendship" by locals, is a major artery linking the urban areas of Ambuila and Quitexe, dotted with dozens of villages along with firewood production facilities and farms, said Antonio Rosario Alex Mutunda, vice-governor of the province.

"The completion of the highway is bringing convenient transportation to the two cities and numerous beneficiaries along the route, thus promoting their economic exchanges with the outside world," he said.

In 2021, CREC4 realized a value of 236.6 billion yuan ($37.2 billion) in newly signed contracts, said Chairman Liu Bo, adding it aims to gain a sales volume of 270 billion yuan in newly signed contracts and a business income of 120 billion yuan in 2022.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Liu said, CREC4 aims to be an industry leader as well as a comprehensive services provider－which is first-class at home and renowned around the world－in the spheres of transportation infrastructure, urban construction and ecological environmental protection, witnessing further progress in its high-quality development.