Foreign firms can be valuable BRI partners

In particular, foreign companies with advanced capabilities and prior experience in certain BRI countries, and which have established relationships with local authorities and stakeholders, could be valuable partners for Chinese companies, as PricewaterhouseCoopers laid out in a report published in 2017 to coincide with the inaugural Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation in Beijing.

The report, titled "Repaving the Ancient Silk Routes", identified six partnership roles that international business and financing communities can play in the BRI: as investors; as suppliers; as partners in engineering, procurement and construction; as experts in international project management; as operators of new facilities and managers of the newly constructed infrastructure; and as sellers of assets.

Pushing boundaries of capability development

Such partnerships not only can help further push the boundaries of capability development for Chinese enterprises, but also offer a way to work with experienced companies across the value chain, in an attempt to optimize asset management.

The formation of project teams and organizations that integrate world-class expertise and skills is fundamental to the success of the BRI. This requires all parties to adapt to each other's approach to decision-making and ways of working. This challenges the individuals involved to operate outside their comfort zone. In order to tap the benefits of the BRI, they need to focus on building personal relationships, trust and understanding.

One reason why it is important to focus on these is that the BRI is now moving into a second phase. As a multi-decade program, the BRI's ambition stretches far beyond the initial stage of infrastructure development (transportation, communications and power). The second phase will involve softer sectors such as e-commerce, healthcare, education and financial services, which may benefit developing as well as developed economies.

In another PwC report, "Workforce for the Future", published in February this year, we identified multiple challenges facing the workforce on a global basis: technological breakthroughs, demographic shifts, rapid urbanization, shifts in global economic power that are redistributing power, wealth, competition and opportunity around the globe. Resource scarcity and climate change, too, are having big impacts on every sector. China will not be immune to these mega-trends.

What is more pronounced for China is perhaps the need to build an internationally adaptable workforce, to integrate expertise and technology in ways that are relatively new to Chinese companies, and to have a clearly defined strategy for working with international business communities to build and deliver world-class partnerships.