The CSCEC was founded in 1957 as a
state company. Early on the country had an international profile building heavy
industry and infrastructure in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The
predecessor company opened its first overseas office in Kuwait in the late
1970s.
With
the encouragement of the Chinese government and financing assistance from the
Export-Import Bank of China, CSCEC has taken increasingly bold steps as a
builder and investor of overseas projects. In 2011, the going abroad trend hit
a new high when Bahamas Resorts, a $3.4 billion casino and resort built and
partially owned by CSCEC, opened after “extremely aggressive” efforts by the
company to link with the Bahamas developer that started the project. It was the
largest construction project undertaken by a Chinese company outside of China.
