In recent years, the general contracting mode has become the mainstream of domestic and international project construction. On February 21 this year, The General Office of the State Council issued document No. 19 (2017) "Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Construction Industry" (referred to as Document No. 19), in which the third article clearly proposed to accelerate the implementation of the development of general project contracting under the improvement of the construction organization mode.
As the power industry general contracting development experience, advocate, recently, the vice president of Power China Construction Group, China Electric Power Planning and Design Association Chairman Yao Qiang on the introduction of the 19th document, the development of general contracting at home and abroad and how to give full play to the advantages of further promote the development of general contracting and other issues were interviewed by our reporter.
Reporter: What significance do you think the release of Document 19 has in promoting the development of domestic general contracting?
Yao Qiang:
First of all, I would like to talk about the No. 101 document issued by The State Council, Notice of The General Office of the State Council Forwarding Opinions of the Ministry of Construction and other Departments on the Reform of the system of Engineering Survey and design Units (referred to as No. 101 document), which clearly points out that the goal of the reform is that survey and design units should be changed from public undertakings to science and technology enterprises. The transformation shall be carried out by referring to the internationally accepted models of engineering companies, engineering consulting and design companies, design firms, geotechnical engineering companies, etc. Small and medium-sized survey and design units may carry out reform in accordance with the enterprise system permitted by laws and regulations.
Arguably, the 101 is the most fundamental document, focusing on our country's understanding of international engineering industry since reform and opening up.
The third article of this year's 19th document clearly proposes to improve the general contracting system and make it clear that the general contracting units take overall responsibility for quality and safety, including the government-invested projects should improve the construction management mode and take the lead in the implementation of general contracting. Speed up the improvement of the general contracting of the project related to bidding and bidding, construction permits, completion acceptance and other systems; In accordance with the principle of general contracting taking overall responsibility, the implementation of the general contracting units in the project quality and safety, schedule control, cost management and other aspects of the opinions, have provided strong policy support for actively promoting the development of general contracting, promoting the healthy and stable development of general contracting.
Reporter: Please introduce the application of general contract mode in our electric power energy industry?
Yao Qiang:
Since all the time, the management mode of capital construction of electric power engineering has not changed fundamentally, in recent years, we continue to explore the new project management mode. China Electric Power Engineering Consulting Group Co., Ltd. and Shandong Electric Power Engineering Consulting Institute Co., Ltd. are the earliest enterprises to carry out general contracting of electric power projects.
At present, the general contracting mode has become the mainstream in the field of thermal power construction. The Waneng Tongling million KW Power Plant project, which was contracted by China Power Engineering Consulting Group, is the first million kW general contracting project in the history of China's electric power construction, which sets a milestone of China's thermal power EPC construction million KW project, and the general contracting mode of China's electric power engineering is becoming mature.
In the past two years, there has been a new breakthrough in the hydropower construction mode. The general contracting mode of pumped storage power station construction is basically an industry practice. The Yangfanggou Hydropower Project in Yalong River Basin in Sichuan Province, undertaken by a consortium consisting of Sinohydro 7th Engineering Bureau Co., LTD. And PowerChina East China Survey, Design and Research Institute Co., LTD., is the first implementation of the EPC model for large-scale hydropower stations with a capacity of one million kilowatts in China, and has become the starting point of general contracting for conventional hydropower. In addition, the new energy sector is basically a general contracting model, especially for photovoltaic projects.
Reporter: In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese electric power design enterprises in the international arena compared with foreign advanced enterprises of the same type in terms of general project contracting? How should it be improved?
Yao Qiang:
First of all, I want to emphasize that the engineering construction in foreign countries is professional design, while most of the domestic projects belong to industrial design. The so-called design, it contains seven meanings, we understand the design is only a part of it. Design in EPC is not only the design that we understand. In the capability framework system of engineering companies, project management is put in the most important position, and design is only a role of providing basic data, because most of the basic data will come from the design, and finally to determine a basic performance index. If domestic design institute wants to develop general contracting, it is necessary to transform to engineering company, and the same applies to construction unit.
In addition, on the system, our current emphasis on Chinese standards to go out, often hinder the development of the general contract project is the biggest problem lies in the standard management system is not clear. National standards exist only for safety, environment and human health.
At present, there are more than 60,000 standards in our country, and each major has a national standard. Without national standards, enterprises cannot purchase, and our standards seriously restrict their own progress. Vertically, our design has a single meaning, and horizontally, there are barriers in the industry. The reason why the development of general contracting is not so fast is that the improvement of capacity building is one of the important factors we should pay attention to.
Due to the vertical management system and relatively inefficient working mode, the traditional project construction mode is nicknamed the prince system in the industry. The problems occurred in the project are promoted slowly, and it takes a lot of time, manpower and material resources to solve. The flat management system of EPC mode greatly improves the efficiency of problem solving, reduces the difficulty of problem solving, enables the owner to make full use of the management mode of small owner and large contractor, focuses on production preparation and external coordination of the project, and promotes the seamless connection between production and infrastructure. Admittedly, EPC mode has many advantages, but the owners still have some worries about the overall contract mode with design as the leader.
Only when the government establishes price guidance for general contract bidding, changes the unhidden market rules of winning the bid with the lowest price, prevents the diving phenomenon that disturbs the normal market competition order, ensures the quality, safety and schedule of project construction, and the design-led general contract enterprises continue to strengthen the construction of on-site construction management talent team, and make up for their weaknesses, can the owners be retained. Jointly create greater value for EPC development.
Reporter: Since last year, some problems have emerged in the development process of the general contract, which caused the question of the general contract model. How do you see this? When undertaking engineering projects in the mode of general contracting, how should enterprises achieve the security control of each link?
Yao Qiang:
In summary, the problems of general contracting in recent years are mainly caused by the incomplete implementation of EPC management mode. The core problem is that the concept from top to bottom and from inside to outside has not changed, and the intensity of EPC responsibilities and rights is not in place.
In the general contracting management, the strength of coordination ability is the concrete embodiment of the general contracting ability and experience, including the owner, supervision, design, procurement, construction and other links. The service function should be fully reflected in the construction management. We should know that the function of the general contractor is not only management, but also to provide all kinds of support and services required by the subcontractors, so that the construction of the project can be promoted steadily.
When it comes to security control, we need to mention project management.
We grasp the project management for so many years, but because of the problems of the infrastructure management model, the impact of the safety management system is great. The project management system, including communication, should use information means. In project planning, safety and quality are inseparable from technical solutions.
Due to the complexity of large-scale projects and the existence of massive information in engineering projects, even if the software is directly introduced from abroad, it is difficult to achieve better results. The lack of network information platform means, only relying on semi-automatic and semi-manual method, simply cannot meet the management needs of most domestic large-scale general contract projects. It restricts the further improvement of the overall management ability of the project schedule. In the information age, technological innovation is productivity. General contract management must pay attention to the system construction, achieve the full coverage of the system. The system includes the safety management system, so that the safety management process solidification.
Reporter: As a leading enterprise of the Belt and Road Initiative, how should PowerChina give full play to its advantages and make greater contribution to the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative?
Yao Qiang:
Energy infrastructure is at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative, especially power, and PowerChina's services also include energy infrastructure. The advantage of PowerChina lies in the operation mode of the whole industry chain, and it has the ability to operate the whole industry chain from planning to operation. The key is how to fully integrate internal resources and truly develop into an engineering company. At present, the concept of our member enterprises is still in the stage of E+P+C. Simple superposition is not a real EPC, which requires deep integration. I think the root cause is to start with the reform of the government management system and truly create an environment that can cultivate international engineering companies.
My point of view is summed up in eight words: value oriented, return to the roots. What is the origin? We are the engineering construction service unit, integration of resources to create maximum value for customers is the essence of the. A project needs a soul. The soul of design is the greatest value of customers. Only when each electric power construction unit and design unit is truly value-oriented and returns to its roots can it develop and grow in the market.