State-owned builder overcomes pandemic roadblocks

China State Construction Engineering Corp has been able to complete a large and much-needed affordable housing project in the Maldives on time despite challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, company officials said.

The government-owned project consists of 7,000 units in Hulhumale, a reclaimed island in the Maldives. Each of the 16 buildings is 25 stories tall.

It is designed to ease housing pressure and provide better living conditions for nearly 30,000 residents of the Maldives' densely populated capital, Male, and nearby cities, according to the company.

It also marks an important part of the company's concerted efforts in support of the Belt and Road Initiative and the development of other countries, officials said.

Occupancy recently reached 70 percent－most of the residents received their keys in August and started moving in October. Floor space of the $434 million project is 36,000 square meters out of a total construction area of 468,000 square meters.

The artificial island－Hulhumale, which is about 9 kilometers from Male－was created to meet the existing and future demand for housing, industrial and business development in Male and surrounding regions.

Mohamed Saeed, a 46-year-old official for the Maldives' Customs office, has been living in rental housing in Male, which is experiencing a housing shortage. Saeed moved into one of the affordable units in October, where he said the rent is lower for a larger space that is nearer to his job.

After paying rent for 20 years, the residents get title to their apartments.

"Male is a city with a high population density, and I had many unpleasant experiences living there," said Suha Sameed, another Male resident who was preparing to move into one of the affordable units. Sameed said residents of the capital spend a lot of time commuting as a result of congested roads, and homes and stores are often hit by water and power outages.

"The interior of the affordable apartment I'm about to move into is being finished now. Life will be much more convenient for my family," Sameed said.

The COVID pandemic created many challenges for the builders, said Li Yongji, project manager at China State Construction. It affected the purchase, transportation and Customs clearances for building materials, leading to a shortage, Li said.

Many Chinese professionals and managers weren't able to travel to the Maldives because of the pandemic, which also put pressure on the construction team to keep it from falling behind schedule, Li said.

An Zhenguo, a project engineer, said the company was proactive when faced with problems. "Instead of waiting in the office for the construction materials, we went to the Customs office to make sure that upon arrival of each container or air shipment, Customs officials would let us transport them to the construction site for use immediately.

"In the past, we had usually just waited for a shipment of goods to complete Customs clearance before going to get them."

Li's staff also employed strategies such as transshipping materials from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong before shipping them to the Maldives, and training more local workers in the Maldives in construction techniques. Through such efforts, problems were resolved and the project was delivered on time despite the challenges.

Ali Wajeeh, a Maldives resident who is also a manager at the project, spoke highly of the construction's speed and quality.

After seeing the impact that COVID was making, Wajeeh said he was worried about whether the project would be completed and delivered as scheduled. However, he said his worries disappeared once he saw how Li's team responded to problems.

"I was proud to be a manager of the affordable housing project and witness how professional and dedicated the Chinese construction workers were," Wajeeh said.

"I always believed that China would overcome the pandemic and that its economy would recover," he said.

China State Construction said its work in assisting the development of the Maldives, a country involved in the BRI, has once again shown that the company is an active participant in the initiative.

The company entered the Maldives market in 2016. Aside from the affordable housing project, it has also worked on bridges, channel dredging projects and office buildings.

Company officials said they had established good relations with many local companies, and their participation has boosted the development of local industries such as construction, materials and transportation, and the local labor market.