The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a special grade engineering project contractor qualification to a local branch of China Nantong Third Construction Co (CNTC) on Feb 16.

The company became the first private Chinese construction company to receive the qualification, which allows it to undertake projects worth 100 million dirham ($27.23 million) and more in the UAE.

There are only four other Chinese-funded companies holding the qualification, including China State Construction Engineering Co, China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Co, China Harbor Engineering Co, and Shaanxi Construction Engineering Group Co, all of which are being State-owned enterprises that have been operating in the UAE for more than 20 years.

CNTC, headquartered in Haimen, a county-level city in Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province, partnered with Royal Group of the UAE to establish a branch in Abu Dhabi in April 2019 in response to the Belt and Road Initiative.

The company has won the bid to build a maker’s block in the UAE, with a contract value of 550 million dirham, becoming the first Nantong construction company to undertake an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) project overseas.