Belt and Road Initiative brings energy projects to go global

against the background of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), how are energy projects to go global? Equity partner Wang Jihong and partner Hao Li with Zhong Lun Law Firm, held discussions revolving around this topic with executives of logistics, investment banks and energy companies during the CBLJ Forum 2019.

Wang said that during the process of BRI projects, she felt the irreplaceable nature of Chinese lawyers. Taking Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as an example, she said that the global assets and projects of SOEs were under the supervision of the government, so every overseas investment project would encounter occasional visits from inspection teams of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which would require expertise from Chinese lawyers to deal with. “From my personal experience, the whole project is inseparable from lawyers, we almost communicate with the leaders of overseas projects in minutes, 24 hours a day on standby,” she said.

Leslie Zhang, deputy general manager and general counsel of the Legal Department of United Energy Group, said that the risk rating of certain countries along the Belt and Road was not very high, which presented certain obstacles to project financing. However, when certain large Western enterprises encountered compliance and other such issues, making it impossible for them to enter a certain country’s market, this presented an opportunity for Chinese enterprises. “Chinese buyers have become an important global force,” he said.