Most of the nearly six trillion yuan (about 849 billion U.S. dollars) of government investment this year has been in place in specific projects, said Liu Sushe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
The press conference was held by the State Council Information Office on systematically implementing a package of incremental policies to solidly promote economic growth, structural optimization and sustained momentum of development.
"The 700 billion yuan earmarked in the central government budget for investment this year has been issued, and 58 percent of relevant projects have been started. Of the one-trillion-yuan ultra-long special treasury bonds, all the 700 billion yuan for implementing major national strategies and building up security capacity in key areas has been in place for relevant projects, with 50 percent of them having started construction. Of the 3.12 trillion yuan of local government special-purpose bonds for funding project construction this year, 2.83 trillion yuan, or 90 percent, had been allocated by the end of September, and construction has started for 85 percent of relevant projects," said Liu.
The official said that by the end of June, all the projects funded by the additional one trillion yuan of special treasury bonds issued in the fourth quarter of last year to support post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and build up capacity for disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief had started construction, with an investment of 770 billion yuan.
Liu said the National Development and Reform Commission has introduced 1,635 major projects to private investment this year, and 441 of them have drawn a total of 344.8 billion yuan of private investment.
"New progress has been made in involving private capital in major infrastructure projects such as nuclear power projects and railways. We also organized and screened 189 key projects for private investment across the country, mainly aiming to help coordinate settlements of major issues including the guarantee of funds. In the meantime, we have regulated and carried out a new mechanism of public-private partnerships (PPP), focused on policy orientations such as user-paid projects, all PPP projects adopting franchising format, and private enterprises being given the priority to participate in PPPs, and released a batch of PPP-new-mechanism demonstration projects, involving a total investment of 141 billion yuan," said the official.
The State Council approved and forwarded a guideline on November 8, 2023 to regulate the new mechanism of public-private partnerships (PPP), jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance.
According to the guideline, PPP projects should focus on user-paid projects, clarify the channels and methods of payment. Meanwhile, the operational revenue of PPP projects should cover construction investment and operational costs with some investment returns.
All PPP projects should adopt franchising format with defined asset ownerships in both construction and operation stages and clear rights, responsibilities and interests of all parties by contract.
6 trillion yuan government investment mostly in place: official
