So One Belt, One Road is one of numerous government policies
associated with the 12th, or now the 13th, five year plan.
One important thing to understand is that in China,
a lot is related to government policies.
Is it directly in this case of the One Belt, One Road policy?
Or indirectly?
So it's always very important for foreign companies, for
foreign entrepreneurs to realize how they can associate their business.
How they can pool on resources associated with this government policy.
So, One Belt, One Road, this is the Maritime Silk Road, so-called.
So investments associated with linking China,
and let's say Europe, through Southeast Asia,
Middle East and Africa for the Maritime Silk Road.
And through Central Asia for the land Silk Road.
It's therefore very important for European companies,
because the Silk Road is from China, and on the other side, there is Europe.
So everything in between is concerned, but it's also very important for
the destination countries, ie.Europe.
A big chunk of it is infrastructure investments,
infrastructure like ports, like shipping, like energy, etc.
So it's a lot of money, it's a primary objective of the initiative,
it's also meant obviously to find outlet for
large infrastructure companies in China.
With huge investments that has been, let's say, labeled One Belt, One Road.
We're talking between 4 and 8 trillion US dollars.
And just to give an idea of the magnitude, in the first four months of 2016,
let's say in the first quarter of 2016,
Chinese contractors signed close to 1,500 EPC contracts,
with a value of more than $30 billion.
This is Chinese statistics.
Chinese government statistics related to the One Belt, One Road policy.
So, huge opportunity.
Now, is it available to foreign companies, and is it meaningful?
Yes, because part of the infrastructure investment also has
to be state of the art technology.
Let's say in the field of energy.
So we're talking turbines for a hydro power plants, for thermal power plants.
We're talking also nuclear investment.
Of course, with a lot of Chinese technology, and
an increasing share of Chinese technologies, this is the objective.
But as a matter of fact, as a starting point, there is also most likely
a significant share of, I was about to say European.
So international, and hopefully some European technology underline.
The idea is that Chinese companies,
primarily state run enterprises, would cooperate with foreign enterprises,
in order to work in third party countries