Chinese contractor commits to UAE with new Dubai office

The state-owned company is the major shareholder of China Railways Group, which is listed as the second-biggest contractor in the world by the US-based trade title Engineering News Record.

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The world’s second-biggest contractor, China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC), has opened a new regional hub in Dubai.

The company gained its trade licence from the Dubai’s Department of Economic Development last September and has opened a temporary office, but it will soon move to a permanent base in Business Bay, said Wei Wenyi, its project manager.

"Our current office is now in Gold Diamond Park, but we are going to buy a new office in Business Bay. We already confirmed the place," he told The National on the sidelines of last week's Middle East Rail event.

The state-owned company is the major shareholder of China Railways Group, which is listed as the second-biggest contractor in the world by the US-based trade title Engineering News Record. It is beaten only by its compatriot, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which already runs its regional base from offices in Jumeirah Lakes Towers.

By the end of 2015 (the most recent year for which figures are available), China Railways Group had total assets of 713.7 billion yuan (Dh379.46bn), net assets of 139.4bn yuan and operating income of 624.1bn yuan.

Although it has completed projects in the region before, most notably the infrastructure work for Nakheel’s Palm Jumeirah, the new office is part of a concerted push by CREC to win more work in the region, according to Mr Wei. It will be headed by Li Gang, the general manager.

“Before, our targets were in South East Asia, in Africa and in South America. We think we should make a balanced strategy all over the world and the Middle East is a very important area to the development of our overseas business,” said Mr Wei. “We consider Dubai to be a very important entry into international markets.”

The company will start with just a few staff, but can mobilise bigger numbers as and when contracts come in, Mr Wei said.

“If the project is ready, we can arrange, because the total staff of CREC is more than 300,000. We have, sufficiently, all types of engineers, technicians and maintenance staff.”

Meanwhile, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of rolling stock, China’s CRRC, has said that it is also planning an office in the UAE. The company, which has almost 187,000 employees and net assets of 115bn yuan as of June 30 last year, said no decision has yet been taken over which city it will choose for its base.

“Currently, as CRRC, we don’t have an office in Dubai but some subsidiaries already have a small presence. But … as a major direction of the marketing in the future, we are planning to have a general, and bigger, office in the UAE,” said Guang Yang, the spokesman.

A decision on the timing of a local branch opening would depend on local contract wins.

At Middle East Rail last week, CRRC exhibited models of the world’s fastest train – its China Standard Emu, which has a maximum operating speed of 380kph.

mfahy@thenational.ae

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