Opening of the 20th Anniversary of STEC in Singapore, Restart of New Era “Belt and Road”

2019-02-19

On March 20, 2018, STEC held the symposium for 20 years anniversary of STEC in Singapore - the restart of the new era “Belt and Road”, reviewed and summarized the “Going out” history of STEC for 20 years, expecting that at the start the 20th year of the overseas business, STEC will make greater contributions to the urban construction of Singapore and more countries along the “One Belt and One Road”. Government and enterprises leaders from the Consulate General of Singapore in Shanghai, Shanghai Commercial Committee, Foreign Affairs Office, Housing Construction Committee, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Transportation Committee, Shanghai International Economic Cooperation Association, China Exim Bank, Shentong Metro, UOB, ANZ and Standard Chartered Bank Enterprise as well as various representatives of STEC attended the symposium. At the symposium, while sharing the "20-year Story", STEC prospected its “Restart” under the “Belt and Road” initiative.

[Company Executives]
Zhang Yan, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of STEC

We are happy to see that in the past 20 years, so many world-renowned owners, partners and excellent employees have chosen us and chose STEC.

Looking back on our development during the past 20 years, we can see it is not so easy for our achievements, but what we are more aware of than the achievements is the trust, help and support given to us on our growth route by every owner including Singapore Land Transport Administration and Utilities Authority, our partners and cooperative companies like NCC, ALPINE and QA, successive chairmen and employees in Singapore as well as the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government committees and the Singapore government and Singapore Consulate in Shanghai. During the 20 years, it is your all-the-way companion that make STEC more powerful and more stable for every step of STEC moving forward.

The 20 years of unremitting efforts reveal that our development of the overseas markets are originated from our profession, concentration and dedication. Today, in the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up, we have already established our Singapore Branch as the regional center of the entire overseas market of STEC, and will, under the initiative of “Belt and Road”, with Singapore as the starting point, provide more and better Chinese products and services to Singapore and more countries along the Belt and the Road.

During the new future overseas journey, I hope that all leaders, partners and colleagues will continue to care for and support STEC so that STEC can make greater contribution for the construction of the new Singapore City and more cities in the world and for the better lives of the citizens.

Zhou Wenbo, President and Party Committee Secretary of STEC
Looking back on our 20 years’ experience, I believe that the success of STEC comes from the four magic weapons - persistence, integration, concentration and dedication.

Persistence - during the 20 years, STEC people encountered with numerous difficulties. All the difficulties, including the physical and psychological pressure on employees, the gap in engineering management costs, and the adaptation to the rules such as “PAPER WORK”, have been overcome by us and we have persisted in our route.

Integration - the reason for our persistence is because we have integrated into the Singapore market. 80% of over 800 international employees in STEC are foreign employees; and what is more important is that the cultural integration has been achieved and a safety culture system has been established, without a single one safety incident in Singapore for 20 years.

Concentration - in Singapore, we only do the best business involving in the fields related to urban infrastructure, especially the tunnel engineering with the subject line of shield tunnels.

Dedication - we have completed every project in Singapore as a project to promote the international brand of STEC, laying the most solid foundation for our rapid development.

The Singapore market has taught us to develop an international vision and form our international thinking; facilitate the international development of our operation model and cultivate a strong core team; in addition to the promotion of our international influence and the expansion of our business to India, Malaysia and other countries as well as the export of our products to more than ten countries and regions.

[Government Commissions]
Yang Chao, Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce

The Singapore government has obviously strict requirements for product and project qualities. Being rooted in the Singapore market has fully proved the strength and international competitiveness of STEC, and also demonstrated the good image of Shanghai enterprises and Shanghai brands in the international market. The Municipal Commission of Commerce will support the overseas development and expansion of STEC as always, and also hopes that STEC will continue to play its model role to strengthen the cooperation between government and enterprises, and jointly create a new era of Shanghai's "Going out" business.

Zhu Weimin, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Office
STEC has won a reputation for Chinese companies and Shanghai companies in Singapore and around the world. The Foreign Affairs Office is currently systematically sorting out the consular protection of Chinese citizens along the “Belt and Road”, we hope to provide escort for Chinese enterprises for “Going out” and find out the “Big Data” of the countries along the “One Belt and One Road” so as to contribute to the safety of Chinese citizens who are “going out”; meanwhile, we will also respond to the demand from STEC for simplified procedures, including making research and going abroad and other procedures more efficient! Finally, I wish STEC to regain their glory in the new era of “Restart from Belt and Road”.

Liu Qianwei, Chief Engineer of Shanghai Municipal Housing and Construction Commission
The "Four Magic Weapons" of STEC, when interpreting in one sentence, is that, during the past 20 years, completing exquisite projects one after another by using the rules of the overseas market, applying common international practices and leveraging its own professional advantages. In the future, STEC must rely on the three aspects of innovation, cooperation and output, continuing to benchmark internationally, consistently develop friends and output domestic urban construction management experience. I look forward to the prosperity and a better and farther future of STEC.

Gui Guojie, President of Shanghai International Economic Cooperation Association

The access to the world's most demanding and most competitive Singapore market more than 20 years ago required extraordinary courage and awareness. This valuable experience has also made STEC a banner for Shanghai's foreign economic industry; we sincerely hope that STEC will continue to move further to a wider world and contribute more to the urbanization and the convenience of transportation of the world, offering Chinese wisdom, China program and China contribution to the world.

Bao Jie, Director, Planning Department, Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission
The municipal SASAC will do its utmost to support the overseas development of STEC, especially in terms of policies implementation, and will build a platform to promote the cooperation of production and financing within the state-owned assets system and provide more support for the going out of STEC.

Jia Hailin, Deputy Director, Construction Department, Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission
The experience of STEC in Singapore is of great significance for improving the level of Shanghai's transportation construction. We hope that STEC will bring the international highest standards and best standards back to China and to Shanghai to contribute wisdom and strength to the implementation of the national transportation power strategy and the construction of Shanghai hub, functional and networked integrated transportation system.

[Partners]
Wang Rulu, Deputy Chief Engineer of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group
Following the reform and opening up, the Shanghai Metro and STEC have achieved great development jointly, forming a fraternal friendship and partner-like relationship during their work. After the basic formation of the network operation of the Shanghai Metro, STEC has actively participated in the construction and operation of the metros in a number of cities including Shanghai, with outstanding achievements, showing the excellent skills and embroidered craftsmanship with its practical actions and presenting its super high level and good image.

Zheng Jun, Managing Director, UOB Bank (China)
UOB Bank is a local bank in Singapore, the bank successfully credited STEC Singapore subsidiary in 2016. After the first business, the cooperation soon expanded to other countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Myanmar, and the credit extension was also completed recently to meet the need of new business development for STEC. In 2017, we also signed a global strategic cooperation agreement in Singapore to fully support the expansion of STEC in Southeast Asian countries as well as in Hong Kong and Macau.

[Successive Leaders]
Cheng Xiao, former chairman of STEC
Twenty years ago, we had the goal of moving towards the international construction market. What we considered then was “How? And where?” After being certified by experts, we selected Singapore. This was based on the following three reasons. Firstly, Singapore has good development prospects and frequent construction projects, which provide us with many opportunities; secondly, the construction market operates in accordance with internationally accepted regulations; thirdly, language communication is more convenient, with both Chinese and English available.

Therefore, with the help of friends from both countries, we established the Singapore branch and quickly obtained the Singapore general contracting qualification. After 20 years’ efforts, STEC has successfully settled in Singapore, expanding the market and gaining the trust of the owners with its excellent quality and superb technology.

The international market in Singapore has created STEC, and STEC has also practiced and grown in Singapore. I hope that STEC will develop in a larger international market and make greater contributions to China's “Belt and Road” goal.

[Singapore Consulate General]
Luo Dewei, Consul General of the Consulate General of Singapore in Shanghai
STEC has completed in Singapore more than 20 tunnel projects, which have greatly promoted our public transport facilities. The integrity established through years of hard work has also made STEC a worthwhile and highly regarded and highly reliable infrastructure construction company in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

I am very pleased that STEC can choose Singapore as its overseas regional headquarter. Following the promotion of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, Singapore is also exploring how to help “Chinese friends” like STEC to “Go out” better. I am very confident in the continued good cooperation between us and hope that cooperation can become an important bridge between the two countries.

20 years: STEC brings Singapore with “China Smarting”
In 1998, with the opportunity of the country’s “Going out” strategy and dancing with the rhythm of market economy, STEC, which has grown into the first listed company in China’s infrastructure sector, once again aimed at new targets – going abroad and going further to the broad international stage, shining the world with “China City Construction Brand”. In the first stop, STEC selected the world's most stringent, open and fair market, Singapore, and thus became the first Chinese state-owned construction company to “go out” in a market-oriented way without relying on “assisted construction projects”. Since then, our vision has continued to expand to a larger world. From the subcontractors of international first-class contractors in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea to the international contractors recognized by the global ENR market, we have led many international excellent partners to shorten the distance, expand the space and connect the future for the 20 years’ urban construction and development in Singapore by China Construction, China Smarting and China Service.

Today, STEC has completed a total length of 56.3 kilometers of rail transit in Singapore, with about 25% of the country's metro lines leaving the traces of STEC people; the water treatment system we built brings cheap water to 5 million people of the country with the shortest water supply; we have also created the most luxurious landmarks in Southeast Asian tourist destinations...

20 years: consistent standard of "Safety First"
The engineering construction of the “Garden City”- Singapore is known worldwide for its safety and greenness. So far, STEC has had a record of 23 million man-hours without a safety responsibility accident in Singapore, establishing the strongest impression in the hearts of the Singapore market and the owners – resting assured by handing over to STEC!

During the past 20 years, STEC has been connected to the local management system in a learning and integration manner, from the establishment of the Safety Management Committee to the construction of the safety director system; from the “Safe Carnival Buffet” and other educational and happy trainings to the most stringent on-site equipment management; from hiring the most professional consultant team to the implementation of the job training for each front-line worker, safety management has become the most powerful brand name card for STEC.

In 2012, STEC won the “Contractor Challenge Shield” award, which represents the highest honor of the Singapore contractors, becoming the first Chinese-funded enterprise to receive this heavy award. In 2017, the “Contractor Challenge Shield” award once again “flowered down” to STEC, recording a new history of extraordinary achievements of STEC and who became the only Chinese company to receive this highest honor.

Now, safety directors, safety workshops and many other safety management systems, practices and methods that have been developed in Singapore have already fed back to the Chinese market of STEC to reflect the unified international standards, and provide the best case study for the safety management of tunnel construction of STEC in China.

20 years: an international perspective under multiculturalism
Employees from all over the world bring a diversified management model and an international culture to STEC.

Twenty years ago, STEC was only a subcontractor for large multinational companies; today, we embrace subcontractors from South Korea, Singapore and Japan. Multiculturalism is a feature of the country of Singapore and a feature of the Singapore branch of STEC.

Now, the international employees of STEC come from 11 countries and regions around the world. Starting from the initial arrival of 26 Chinese employees in Singapore, STEC has now more than 800 overseas employees, with 80% of which being foreign employees.

The international team brings an international vision and working atmosphere, and promotes STEC SUCG International Engineering Co., Ltd. to become a truly multinational company with international and market-oriented operational capabilities, fighting freely in the most open international market.

This diversified team has made brilliant achievements of STEC. With China's advanced technology and equipment, Singapore's safety management system, Japan's refined management and Southeast Asian professional technicians, STEC integrates the world's best resource allocation, providing Singapore's urban construction and all Singaporeans with best services.

This diverse and international team is more a “responsible” team. In the past 20 years, STEC has consistently fulfilled their social responsibilities and contributed to the cause of public welfare. Regardless of the language or the skin, regardless of the hometown or the nationality, the desire to make the city a better life of STEC is well-known.