Project management cer tification is a relatively new trend in China, but already professional training courses on the discipline are expanding rapidly across the country.
Since 1999 when the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) and Project Management Institute(PMI) from the United States introduced project management professional certification in China, over 90,000 Chinese have taken the courses and about 53,000 of them have successfully obtained certification as of August 2011, according to Craig Killough, Vice President of PMI at the Second PMI Congress held in Beijing from September 16-17.
Currently, the number of Chinese project management professional credential holders is second only to the United States, accounting for nearly 10 percent of total holders worldwide. The number of Chinese certificate holders will grow at around 20-30 percent annually, said Bai Jixun, General Director of the Training Center of SAFEA at the congress.
The last decade has seen an explosion in project management in China as the economy continues to boom. An estimated 700,000 project management professionals are going to be needed across China every year for the foreseeable future, said Bob Chen, Manager Director of PMI China.
The demand mainly comes from four sources: multinational companies’ operations in China, Chinese companies’ overseas businesses, state-owned enterprises and the Chinese Government, which aims to transform the country from being manufacturing-oriented to service-oriented, said Chen.
“Considering the fact that the Chinese economy is becoming the fastest growing one in the world and represents a large number of people, the development of project management in China will be beyond comprehension,” said Killough.
Project-based
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to achieve specific goals. It is different from usual business management, which com- prises repetitively permanent or semi-permanent functional activities that produce products or services. Therefore, project management usually requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.
Since its early introduction, professional and senior management realized the advantages and benefits of project management to help them minimize project delays, reduce project costs, improve product and service quality, and utilize their technical resources.
According to Beth Partleton, Chair of the PMI Board of Directors, 41 percent of those organizations with a project management office will bring a project in on time and under budget, 67 percent will meet project goals or intent, and another 67 percent of organizations with these offices saw an increase in projects meeting goals.
Before the mid-1980s, there was virtually no project management in China, said Bai. The boom for project management in China came about after large construction projects kicked off following the reform and opening-up policy implemented in 1978.
Official data showed that in the first decade of this century, China spent more than 30 trillion yuan ($4.7 trillion) on infrastructure construction projects—projects that were completed successfully because of project management, said Bai.

For Bai, project management developed rapidly thanks to China’s transition from a planned economy to a market economy.
“Under the planned economy, most companies and enterprises were not independent market entities and were not responsible for making profit. But a market economy requires every enterprise to make profit and be responsible for their own business operations. Otherwise, they could not survive,”said Bai.
At the congress, Wang Linshu, former chief engineer of the Ministry of Railways(MOR), cited how project management was introduced into the MOR and improved its operation. In the past, there were no rules for budget controls, which resulted in overspending and inefficient construction timetables. Since 2004, the legal person accountability system was introduced into the project management of railway construction. The project management body was responsible for taking out loans and making repayments in addition to construction. This forced the project managers to keep a closer eye over project finances, said Wang.
For Partleton, the key to a successful enterprise is being project-based. Project-based companies are exposed to relatively low levels of risk on particular projects because it enables the company to define customer requirements accurately and ensure that they are complied with as the project progresses.
Project management is the most important tool to improve a company’s operation efficiency and break administrative barriers, said Hou Weigui, President of Shenzhenbased ZTE Corp., one of China’s biggest telecommunications equipment makers.
ZTE’s project management team consists of high-end management experts, project directors, thousands of project managers and about 8,000 engineers, safeguarding reliable end-to-end delivery services for network evolution of customers around the world. With advanced tools and project and engineering experience, ZTE carries out comprehensive project management activities in network construction, operation and maintenance from planning and design to implementation, maintenance, operation and contracted management, said Hou.
Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., one of the world’s leading telecommunications solution suppliers, also experienced a transition period from that of a manufacturer to a comprehensive telecommunications solution provider. This new service-focused business required more sophisticated project management, said Bai.
In 2002, Huawei established an integrated mechanism to train and develop project managers and strengthen project management practices and processes. Project management has been the most important internal training course in Huawei. As of the end of 2010, Huawei had nearly 5,000 project managers with project management professional certification.
Project management is also essential to Chinese enterprises’ global ambitions, said Bai.
At the congress, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) was awarded the PMI(China) Project Management Prize, the first oil refining company in China to receive this award. In its hunt for global acquisitions, CNOOC has bought stakes in oil assets in Africa, South America, the Middle East and Australia.
“Because of different business models and management systems, project management in oil companies is different from engineering companies. CNOOC started the special project manager certification project in 2007,” said Chen Hai, Administrative Manager of Engineering and Construction Department of CNOOC.
More than any other nation, China is“where the action is” today in large-scale project management. “Your sustained investment in business expansion, in public works and in overseas market, partnerships and resources has helped pull the entire world economy through a difficult period,” said Partleton.
“Growth opportunities for project management in China are limitless,” Killough told Beijing Review.
Improvement needed
“Chinese companies should raise the professional management standards to increase the success rate of their projects and gain advantages in international competition,” said Bai.
Lin Shaopei, professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said many Chinese construction companies lost money overseas because they lacked experience in managing projects and did not pay enough attention to cultural differences.
State-owned China Railway Group Ltd., for example, lost 550 million yuan ($86 million) in its highway construction project in Poland, which caused a decline in its net profit in the first half of this year.
Chinese corporate leadership lacks enough adaptability to address changing international situations, lacks enough management ability to avoid market risks, and lacks an international view to meet challenges that arise from globalized projects, said Lin.
In addition, Chinese enterprises are not experienced enough to win the confidence and trust from international management teams, said Lin.
While going global, Chinese enterprises need to cultivate people with international visions and a comprehensive knowledge structure in addition to professional techniques.
Chinese enterprises should improve their own management ability when going global, said Shen Danyang, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
He said MOFCOM will establish a scientific and standardized supervision and coordination mechanism as well as a quality management system to help Chinese enterprises going global.