(Tianjin North China Nonferrous Construction Engineering Company, Tianjin, 300000)

With the internationalization, globalization and integration of the world economy, the correlation between China's economy and the world economy is getting higher and higher. Therefore, "going out" is an urgent requirement for China to participate in global industrial transfer and competition and strive for international market space; It is an inevitable choice to promote the strategic adjustment of China's economic structure, seize the international market and safeguard national economic security; It is the only way for China to set up multinational companies and seek overseas survival and development.

First, the experience and understanding of overseas contracting projects

Sudan Branch of Tianjin Huabei Nonferrous Construction Engineering Company is a joint venture between Tianjin Huabei Nonferrous Construction Engineering Company and Huabei Engineering Survey Institute, which specializes in water well engineering. The company was established in 2000 and engaged in business activities in the United Arab Emirates in the name and qualification of others. In March 2003, the company was officially registered in Sudan. After hard work, the company won the bid for Zaid drilling and water supply project in Sudan for the first time on 2001015. As the Zaid project is the first overseas project undertaken and independently constructed by the company, the gains and losses during this period are natural. Its biggest gains are as follows: ① Going abroad well, opening up overseas construction market, adding new economic growth points for the company's development and setting an example for all industries to enter the international market; (2) With the efforts and development of a group of people in the branch company, it has established itself in the Sudan water supply engineering market in a relatively short period of time and has been highly recognized by the host country; (3) Master and be familiar with the basic knowledge and operating procedures of international project bidding (such as making tender documents, mastering the bottom line, inquiring about material prices, operating guarantees, bidding quotations, etc.). ); Familiar with Sudan's national strata and groundwater distribution law; Master the construction technology and drilling technology suitable for Sudan's national strata; (4) Training and bringing up a batch of highly plastic management talents, engineering commanders, front-line technical backbones and front-line workers; ⑤ Cultivate and form an enterprise spirit that is willing to be lonely, bear the burden of humiliation, bear hardships and stand hard work, unite and forge ahead, and a team sense of patriotism, dedication, obedience to the overall situation, mutual cooperation, mutual care and joint efforts.

Of course, before the experience, the company also has some shortcomings or lessons, which are as follows: ① Because it has just set foot in the overseas engineering market and lacks experience, the long-distance freight of equipment and materials, high customs clearance costs and long construction front are not fully considered when bidding for the project, resulting in high cost of a single project and the expected benefits cannot be realized as scheduled; (2) Due to objective reasons, 50 water wells built in the first phase are distributed in northern, southern and western Sudan 10 provinces, with a span of 2,500 kilometers from north to south and nearly 500 kilometers from east to west, which undoubtedly increases the relocation cost and the supply cost of equipment and materials, and affects the formation of expected benefits; (3) Due to the imperfect production plan and equipment spare parts plan, the Sudanese people's low work efficiency, poor time concept and slow customs clearance, the supply of some materials and equipment spare parts is not timely, which affects the production schedule and drilling efficiency, and thus makes the project cost too high; (4) Inadequate estimation of the natural environment, construction conditions and living conditions, especially the untimely response or treatment of the frequent "Malay fever" diseases of employees, which more or less affected employees' emotions and even caused personal fear; ⑤ The political environment of the construction country was not anticipated in advance. At first, the company simply thought that "we have benefited the Sudanese people from afar" and never thought that the local political environment was not as good as expected, so it kidnapped two workers in March 2004.

Second, the analysis of foreign contracted projects

China's foreign contracted projects began in the late 1970s. At first, it was only a free aid to third world countries. With the continuous development of the recipient country's economy, the projects invested by the host country gradually appear, which is the prototype of foreign contracted projects in the true sense. Since the 1980s, these projects have gradually developed, and various forms of foreign contracted projects have been formed.

At present, from the overall situation of China's foreign projects, there are the following characteristics: ① the development momentum is relatively fierce. By the end of 20001,the contract value of foreign contracted projects was $99.7 billion and the turnover was $75 billion. In 2002, the two indexes increased by 20% compared with 200 1; ② Construction enterprises are gradually diversified. Up to now, there are nearly 2,000 enterprises in China with the qualification of contracting abroad, including international companies, foreign trade companies, construction enterprises, design institutes, large enterprise groups and professional companies. (3) The international status has been gradually improved. According to engineering news-record's statistics, in 20001year, 39 China companies entered 225 international contractors, ranking sixth in turnover, second only to the United States, Japan, France, the Netherlands and Italy, and continued to rise in 2002. (4) The business scope continues to expand, and the number of projects with a contract value exceeding 100 million continues to increase. Small to building roads and bridges, building factories in Gai Lou, exploring resources, and large to water conservancy, electric power construction and oil field development; ⑤ Large projects bring a good political, social and economic image to the country; ⑥ Great development potential. The huge international market space and our government's strong support for overseas contracted projects make overseas contracted projects have strong vitality.

However, not everyone can set foot in the international project contracting market. The new development trend makes enterprises need enough capital and ability (including technology, qualification, production capacity, sufficient funds, international management ability, etc.). ) enter the international engineering market, even including experience. The main reasons are as follows: ① Great changes have taken place in the way of contracting. Project financing and contracting with capital are gradually popularized, and the unilateral "part-time" contracting will gradually decrease in the future, replaced by technical and financial strength; ② It will be fashionable for international management companies to develop a single project into a large-scale project, and to develop a combined project into a general contracting project; (3) The industrial division of labor tends to deepen, and contractors from all countries try their best to seize the commanding heights of the market; (4) M&A among international contractors is intensifying day by day, and going it alone will lose its due competitive advantage; ⑤ The state needs to increase credit support; ⑥ Many developing countries are faced with both "peace and stability" and "development". In other words, many countries are still in the stage of social unrest and war, such as African countries, countries in West Asia and Central Asia, and even individual countries around China.

Third, the problems that should be paid attention to in international contracting projects

1. Attach great importance to the lack of competitiveness of China's foreign contracted projects.

Low technical content, lack of diversification, small enterprise scale, poor financial strength and lack of strategic planning are the main problems in China's foreign contracted projects. From the comparative analysis of our company in Sudan and other domestic enterprises (including China Great Wall Company, PetroChina, Natural Gas Company, etc.). ), the small scale of the enterprise and insufficient production capacity limit the increase of the total project amount; Insufficient economic strength, issuing various letters of guarantee, affecting the undertaking of large-scale projects; The lack of operating experience in international contracted projects limits the generation and growth of expected benefits.

2. Formulate development strategies and actively and steadily "go out" in a planned and step-by-step manner.

Analyzing the current reform situation of China's geological prospecting industry and the international space for industrial development, it should be said that conditionally "going out" is one of the effective ways for our survival and development. At the same time, we have the advantages of technology and construction, and have also accumulated some talents, information and foreign-related experience. In addition, we have established many cooperation or work windows abroad. Therefore, there is a certain foundation for implementing the "going out" strategy. For example, Sudan Branch opened its market with the help of the advantages of hydrogeological technology and groundwater engineering construction accumulated by our previous geological exploration. It should be said that this choice is in line with industrial options, or in line with the development strategy of leading industries. However, when investigating and selecting projects, special attention should be paid to technical demonstration, economic analysis and risk prediction. At present, China has encountered many problems on the road of "going global", such as the lack of information about the target market, including the political and legal information of the host country, the potential risks of the project itself, the local cultural environment and labor habits. For example, when a foreign construction company in China undertakes a road construction project in a certain country, due to the carelessness and incompleteness of the relevant project inspectors in advance, they do not fully understand the local construction conditions, climate and working habits, and only rely on domestic routine experience to send equipment and tools to the destination and send personnel to the construction site. As a result, due to the inadaptability of local working habits, natural environment and construction equipment, the technical requirements of project supervision are difficult to meet, which leads to the failure of project implementation and heavy losses.

Based on this, in the investigation of foreign-related projects, we must be "cautious" and "meticulous". During the inspection, not only should the project itself be demonstrated in detail, but also the input and output should be weighed economically. At the same time, we must never ignore the comprehensive understanding of the politics, laws, industrial policies, tax policies, human environment, living habits and labor habits of the country where the project is located.

3. Strictly grasp the signing and performance of international engineering contracts.

Because international engineering is a transnational economic activity, international engineering contracts are much more complicated than domestic economic contracts. International engineering contract is a link that must be mastered in international engineering, including preliminary preparation (referring to the preparation of bidding documents), bidding, business negotiation, contract commitment, signing contract text and contract execution. To this end, we should pay attention to the integrity of the contract. Including contract agreement, tender, bid-winning reply, contract performance conditions, technical specifications, drawings, quantities, etc. , we should strive to be detailed and specific. Second, we should pay attention to the selection of perfect and universal contract texts. At present, the most commonly used contract conditions in the world are FIDIC (French abbreviation of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) 99th edition, including FIDIC's basic application conditions, FIDIC's engineering equipment and design/construction contract conditions, FIDIC's turn-key contract conditions and FIDIC's concise contract format. The four contract conditions have their own inherent requirements in contract management, quality management, risk sharing and payment methods. Third, in the process of performing the contract, we must protect ourselves according to law. For example, international projects should be "based on words" and "gentleman's agreement" is not allowed, that is, even a promise, reply and approval of the owner or project supervisor must be "in black and white" and signed; Draft the contract first, "preconceived", write your rights and interests into the contract as much as possible, and seize the initiative to sign the contract; Pay attention to the preservation and communication of contract documents. Contract documents, negotiation minutes and procedures must be complete, and copies should be kept. In the communication of documents, the other party needs to sign for approval. When executing or performing the contract, we should pay attention to collecting the loopholes of the other party's work, especially the change and delay of the construction period, the signing and approval of relevant documents, and the time when the funds are in place. Collect the claim data in time and put forward the claim plan. In the process of construction, the claim data collected according to the claim clause is the factual basis of the claim. Without the latter, or the latter is not sufficient and informative, the purpose of the claim cannot be achieved. This requires the main managers of construction projects to organize special personnel to take charge of this work and clarify their post responsibilities. Because claim is a very serious legal work, technical work and economic work, and it is a comprehensive system engineering. The person in charge of the claim must be familiar with and master the claim terms, and have a strong sense of professionalism and responsibility. Only such a person in charge can collect accurate claim information and achieve the purpose of claim settlement. Fourth, we should learn to solve disputes in project contracting according to international practice. The disputed issues include: ① claim, one is that the owner claims from the contractor, and the other is that the contractor claims from the owner. No matter who claims from whom, there are problems that the claim is not established and the claim amount can be consistent; (2) liquidated damages, one is not to admit that you have breached the contract, the other is to accuse the other party of breaching the contract, and the third is not only to punish liquidated damages, but also to make additional claims; (3) Termination of the contract. First, the contract is terminated due to the owner's responsibility, such as the owner's default on payment, bankruptcy or inability to repay debts, which leads to the inability to continue the contract; Second, the contractor's responsibility caused the termination of the contract, such as the fact that the project was delayed, the situation could not be reversed, bankruptcy or inability to repay debts, which led to the inability to continue to perform the contract.

4. Strengthen the risk management of the project to minimize the risk loss.

(1) Improve project risk awareness. First, improve the risk awareness of construction management, strengthen the supervision and risk management of engineering projects, highlight the construction technical measures and quality and safety operation procedures, especially the project managers, construction technicians and other relevant personnel should realize the harmfulness of risks and improve the consciousness of obeying rules and disciplines. The second is to strengthen the evaluation, prediction, prevention and control of risk factors in the construction process, reduce the occurrence of risks, and take effective remedial measures when risks occur, so as to prevent risks, avoid risks, reduce losses, reduce costs and improve efficiency.

(2) Establish engineering insurance mechanism. According to international practice, the whole construction process is insured. When implementing engineering insurance, the whole construction process, including related engineering links, should be analyzed and studied as much as possible to make a scientific risk assessment. For all possible risk links, those that can be insured according to international practice should be insured, and those that cannot be insured should formulate corresponding feasible preventive measures.

(3) Risk management of contract guarantee. Contract guarantee is a legal act to safeguard the interests of employers, and it is a legally binding document independent of the contract. It mainly includes: bid guarantee, performance guarantee, advance payment guarantee, deposit guarantee and other projects. Generally speaking, the contractor and the insurer are closely related, otherwise the insurer will not guarantee the contractor. The key of contract guarantee is to carefully analyze and study the guarantee documents of the employer, so as to be reasonable, reasonable and legal, and the harsh conditions that harm the interests of the state and the contractor are unacceptable. On the other hand, as a contractor of international engineering projects, we should carefully study the terms of the contract and pay special attention to and prevent the owner from terminating the contract. At the same time, the amount of the guarantee shall be treated technically, and the price shall not be clearly marked because of the omission of the guarantee. It is necessary to choose a good way of performance, fully study the terms of the policy and strengthen the management of the letter of guarantee.

(4) Engineering insurance management. The purpose of engineering insurance is to transfer engineering risks and make up for the economic losses caused by risks. Construction insurance should include the whole construction process, that is, personal accident insurance for all construction personnel, transportation insurance for materials and equipment, etc. Insurance in the process of construction should be clear about all aspects of risk responsibility, insurance types and insurance methods. And to study whether the terms of the insurance contract and insurance policy can protect their own interests. Therefore, when carrying out engineering insurance, we should make full use of the insurance clauses in FIDIC clauses to minimize mistakes and economic losses.

5. Be familiar with international project settlement methods and pay attention to avoiding investment risks.

Creditor's rights and debts arising from international trade and non-trade transactions should be received and paid in currency, that is, they should be settled under certain forms and conditions, thus resulting in the international settlement method. The ways of international settlement range from simple cash settlement to more perfect bank letter of credit. Payment and settlement methods can be divided into two categories: forward remittance and reverse remittance from the direction of capital flow and delivery of settlement tools. Shunhui is a settlement method in which the creditor or payer voluntarily gives the money to the bank and entrusts the bank to pay a certain amount to the creditor or payee with some settlement tool. This settlement method is also called bank remittance business, such as wire transfer, letter transfer, draft, etc. Reverse remittance is a settlement method in which creditors issue bills and entrust banks to collect a certain amount from foreign debtors. This method is also called bank collection business and letter of credit business, such as collection (including clean bill collection and documentary collection) and letter of credit. Therefore, on the one hand, before signing the contract, we should choose the settlement method that is beneficial to us and strive for the initiative of the work; On the other hand, we should pay attention to the settlement period of the project, especially the proportion of completed projects and settlement funds in the settlement period; In the third aspect, we should pay attention to the evaluation and investigation of the integrity of the partners to reduce the risk of funds as much as possible.

6. Strengthen personnel training and quality education for foreigners.

At present, the most prominent problems in foreign construction projects are personnel allocation and personnel quality. First of all, we should establish a strong project management team, especially a good project manager. The project manager is the soul of the project management team, and his quality determines the success or failure of the contracted project. The project manager must be clear-headed, quick-thinking and able to make decisions according to the situation. The project manager can understand the planning, cost forecast, management accounting, capital operation cycle, material supply, equipment capacity, claims, insurance, local taxes and other businesses of the whole project, and can take corresponding countermeasures in accordance with international practices to prevent possible mistakes and losses. At the same time, the project manager should have a good foreign language foundation, be able to talk with the owner and local professionals, and be able to read foreign language materials. With these conditions, we can certainly improve work efficiency, speed up information acquisition and promote integration with international practices. The second is to strengthen the training of existing personnel in a planned way, especially the training and further study of investment in foreign-related business and management personnel, and cultivate a group of talents suitable for foreign-related business and management. The training contents include language, legal knowledge, international project settlement, FIDIC contract conditions, foreign-related negotiation skills, national customs and so on. Third, it is necessary to train a group of talents with "one specialty and many abilities". Achieve "five skills", that is, specialty, language, management, computer and driving. Practice has proved that foreign-related projects need more hands-on personnel to avoid the phenomenon of "all managers without actual operators". Fourth, strengthen the quality education of dispatched personnel, and be good at dealing with the relationship with owners, supervisors and local employees. In foreign exchanges, we should not only adhere to principles, but also be flexible and strategic. In the eyes of foreigners, we represent China. Be neither humble nor supercilious, and safeguard your own interests. According to international practice, strive for every inch and reap every inch. For supervision, there are both objections and consents, that is, all employees of the owner, so we should make good use of this agreement to restrain supervision. Hiring local employees must be familiar with local labor laws and regulations, and mobilize the enthusiasm of employees for our use without violating the rules. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the management of expatriates. Because expatriates generally have greater autonomy, this requires expatriates, especially operators or enterprise managers, to pay attention to patriotism and love for enterprises, and at the same time to be honest, abide by the rules and regulations of enterprises and abide by foreign affairs discipline.

Brief introduction of the author

[1] Zhou Rong, general manager and senior economist of Tianjin Huabei Nonferrous Construction Engineering Company.

[2] Jia, Tianjin Huabei Nonferrous Construction Engineering Company.