A comparative analysis of the Chinese construction industry internationalisation performance and sustainability: Before and after entry into the WTO

The Chinese construction industry has developed dramatically in several aspects and there has been significant activity in the international market in the last decade following the entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Various indicators support the claim that the Chinese construction industry has experienced growth post entry into the WTO. However, these measures are simplistic and give little strategic direction to both firms and national and regional policymakers. The measurement of performance of the construction industry has largely been through macroeconomic indicators such gross domestic product and employee numbers. There has been some progress in recent years in relation to more informative analysis and comparisons in relation to international measures. Sustainable development is a significant research theme in various fields all over the world. As well as various developments to theory, the fundamental concept of sustainable development has expanded from only the environment perspective to now including economic, social and environment perspectives. As a resource-intensive industry, the construction industry consumes a numerous resources and produces much waste. Therefore, the construction industry is inextricably linked to the environment. Also, because of the importance of the construction industry to the economy and society in general, its role and interaction with the concept of sustaining development is quite significant. Many researchers believe sustainable development within the construction industry would bring great benefits for industry, society and the environment. However, some others state it will reduce the economic benefits of the construction industry and, affect the overall performance of the industry. There are significant differences in the level of technology, education, standards and policy in different countries in relation to the level of sustainable development of the construction industry. Different countries and organizations have provided varied measurements from different perspective. However there is no an internationally agreed one especially for construction industry. This paper will discuss the new features of Chinese construction industry in last decade firstly. Next, Zhang and London's (2010) "ROLI-Model" and International Advanced Index will be adopted to compare the international performance of Chinese construction industry before and after joining the WTO. This paper will also generate a new sustainable development measurement according to the characteristics of the construction industry, the availability of data and other sustainable development indicators system which have been proposed before. Furthermore, this measurement will be used to compare the Chinese construction industry's sustainability before and after joining the WTO.