Public-private partnerships on foreign ports investment of Chinese port-related enterprises

With the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese port-related enterprises have been participating in overseas port investment, construction, and operation. Most of the sino-foreign port investment projects are undertaken through the cooperation between Chinese companies as private entities and public sectors in the host countries. This approach is regarded as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). This paper overviews current PPP implementation on foreign ports investment of Chinese port-related enterprises. These enterprises include port engineering companies, port terminal operators and local port enterprises. Through an analysis of the collated foreign port investment cases, this paper categorizes five main PPP options and modalities adopted i.e. Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC), Build Operate Transfer (BOT), Joint Venture, Concession, and Partial Divestiture. The findings show that port engineering companies normally undertake foreign port investment through EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts but in recent years, they have been starting to adopt the BOT approach with the transition from short-term profit to long-term operation. Port terminal operators such as Cosco Shipping Ports and China Merchant Port mainly adopt the forms of acquisition and concession for foreign ports operation. As for local port enterprises, they have adopted joint venture, acquisition and concession means for overseas port and terminal investment.