Traffic on a road upgraded by a Chinese company in Kigali, Rwanda, Sept. A road upgrading project in Rwanda contracted to China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has helped ease traffic flow and advance seamless trade along the Kigali-Bugesera district, eastern Rwanda. (Photo by Huang Wanqing/Xinhua) Understanding the processes behind China’s expertise in building road infrastructure at scale COMMENT | NNANDA KIZITO SSERUWAGI | The four decades leading to 2024 were very productive for China in the scaling of its road infrastructure, being characterised by the building of over 190,700 kilometres of tarmac roads.
This brought the total of its paved road network to a staggering 4.9 million kilometres. Behind this record is not simply policy instruments but an extensive system. China has organised a land tenure regime that enables the state to acquire land more efficiently.
They have devised ways of financing road infrastructure by using land as a key mechanism for raising money. They have made their government bureaucracy more efficient by incentivising the successful delivery of projects as a qualifier for rewarding public and civil servants. Whereas they have a very competitive bidding process, the state always ensures it serves the public good rather than frustrate public projects under the pretext of following arcane processes.
Then they have built a technology powerhouse that has increased efficiency by making hard and dangerous road engineering work automated. The land tenure system is central to China’s ability to deliver roads efficiently. The structural advantage here is that the state owns urban land, while rural land is not owned on freehold title but rather is collectively owned by villages.
Even individuals and firms cannot have freehold title – they only have long-term use rights. Freehold title usually makes land acquisition for public projects cumbersome because it entitles private owners to ownership in perpetuity. But the more interesting insight is this.
When local governments want to build a road, they turn rural land where the project is situated into state-owned land, and the compensation is based on the value of agricultural output on that piece of land instead of negotiating for market prices based on a parcel-by-parcel basis. This makes both the conversion and compensation of land affordable and efficient.
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