Promoting Private Investment through Practical Recruitment (Policy Interpretation) Private | Economic Development | Investment
Data mapping: Wang Zheping
Private investment is an important link in the development of private economy. In order to better stimulate the endogenous driving force of private investment, the National Development and Reform Commission recently issued a notice on further strengthening and promoting the work of private investment, and striving to mobilize the enthusiasm of private investment. The person in charge has interpreted this.
Private investment plays an irreplaceable and important role in various aspects
"Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), private investment has generally maintained a steady growth, and its vitality has been growing, playing an irreplaceable role." Luo Guosan, director of the fixed assets investment Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, analyzed the role of private investment from three aspects:
——Stable investment growth and promoting economic development. In 2022, private investment reached 31 trillion yuan, an increase of about twice the 15.4 trillion yuan in 2012. Since the establishment of private investment statistical indicators in 2012, the proportion of private investment in the overall investment has always exceeded half, playing an important role in stabilizing investment growth and promoting economic development.
——Create employment opportunities and enhance economic vitality. The private investment mechanism is flexible, close to the market, and has strong employment absorption capacity. The proportion of private investment in manufacturing industry has always exceeded 70%, playing a crucial role in enhancing the international competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, developing the real economy, and creating employment opportunities. In the past two years, private investment in the manufacturing industry has maintained rapid growth and shown strong vitality.
——Promote innovative development and optimize economic structure. Private enterprises are good at gathering innovative resources for investment, which plays an important role in promoting economic transformation and upgrading, as well as structural optimization. According to statistics, 65% of patents, over 75% of technological innovation, and over 80% of new product development in China are completed by private enterprises.
In 2022, private investment increased by 0.9%, accounting for 54.2% of the overall investment. In the first half of this year, the growth rate and proportion of private investment in the overall investment both decreased. "At present, the growth of private investment is really under great pressure." Han Zhifeng, Deputy Director of the fixed assets investment Department of the National Development and Reform Commission and a first level inspector, believes that the current situation of private investment should be viewed dialectically.
On the one hand, we should see that the structure of private investment continues to optimize, and many highlights have emerged in some areas. "In the first half of the year, private investment in the manufacturing industry increased by 8.4% year-on-year, 2.4 percentage points higher than the overall investment in the manufacturing industry; private investment in infrastructure increased by 15.6% year-on-year, 8.4 percentage points higher than the overall investment in infrastructure, showing strong investment confidence and momentum," said Han Zhifeng.
On the other hand, it is important to have a clear understanding of the main problems currently faced by private investment. Han Zhifeng's analysis: Due to insufficient demand and other factors, some companies have not yet fully recovered their confidence; Some traditional industries have limited growth potential, while for emerging industries, some private enterprises cannot see clearly and cannot grasp the development trend, and their investment direction is unclear; Some private enterprises have strong investment intentions in projects, but there are still some restrictions; In terms of factor acquisition, the problem of difficult and expensive financing for private enterprises still exists, and some projects are also constrained by factors such as land and energy use.
Propose a series of innovative measures in project promotion, element assurance, problem response, and other aspects
In response to the main problems faced by private investment at present, the Notice proposes a series of innovative measures in project promotion, factor guarantee, problem reflection, and work assessment.
In project promotion, launch the "Three Clears Single Platform". The Notice proposes that all regions should comprehensively sort out the list of three types of projects, including national major engineering and remedial projects, key industrial chain supply chain projects, and fully user paid franchise projects, and build a unified platform to promote projects to private capital. Through project promotion meetings and platforms, project information should be publicly released to help private capital better understand and participate in project implementation. In response to the uncertainty of investment direction and fields among some private enterprises, the Notice proposes to select a group of segmented industries with large market space, strong development potential, in line with national major strategies and industrial policy requirements in areas such as transportation, water conservancy, clean energy, new infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and modern facility agriculture, and encourage private capital to actively participate.
Establish a "one database, one mechanism" for factor assurance. In response to the difficulties in financing and insufficient guarantee of land and other factors reported by some private enterprises, the Notice proposes to establish a national key private investment project database. The development and reform department will screen out eligible private investment projects and provide them to relevant financial institutions and departments to coordinate and strengthen the financing and factor guarantee of key private investment projects. At the same time, fully leverage the role of the investment loan linkage mechanism, share information on the preliminary procedures and funding arrangements of private investment projects, and optimize financing support for private investment projects. In addition, the National Development and Reform Commission will consult with the Ministry of Natural Resources to increase land security for key private investment projects that meet the conditions.
Build a combined online and offline communication channel for problem response. The Notice proposes to establish channels for reflecting and resolving private investment issues, establish online columns for reflecting private investment issues, identify a group of designated private enterprises for offline contact, regularly conduct in-depth surveys on private investment, collect key problem clues encountered by private investment, such as penalty management, implicit barriers to market access, and unfair treatment in bidding, and accelerate the resolution of these difficult problems, forming a closed-loop management mechanism of "collecting feedback solving" problem clues.
Supporting the issuance of infrastructure real estate investment trust funds for more projects
After years of investment and construction, China has formed a huge amount of high-quality stock assets in the field of infrastructure. Effectively activating existing assets and forming a virtuous investment cycle are of great significance for expanding social investment channels, reasonably expanding effective investment, preventing government debt risks, and reducing corporate debt levels.
"Revitalizing existing assets, infrastructure real estate investment trust funds are one of the important ways." Han Zhifeng introduced that the National Development and Reform Commission has recommended 35 infrastructure REITs projects to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, including 4 expansion projects; A total of 32 projects have been listed, with a fund of 97.5 billion yuan issued.
"Overall, the number of infrastructure REITs projects in private enterprises is relatively small, and the asset types are relatively single." Han Zhifeng believes that objectively speaking, the breadth and depth of private enterprises' participation in infrastructure investment are relatively limited, and the number of private investment projects in the infrastructure field is relatively small; Subjectively speaking, infrastructure REITs are an innovative financial tool, and some private enterprises initially had a wait-and-see mentality.
Recently, the enthusiasm of private enterprises to issue infrastructure REITs has significantly increased, and the number of declared projects has also increased significantly. In Han Zhifeng's view, the main reasons include: in March this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission expanded the industry scope of issuing infrastructure REITs to consumer infrastructure, while private enterprises held and operated a large number of shopping center and department store projects, laying a foundation for their better participation; The first batch of infrastructure REITs projects have been listed for over two years, and the awareness of private enterprises has improved; The relevant departments are focusing on increasing the initial guidance efforts to help projects meet the application requirements as soon as possible.
The Notice proposes to strengthen communication between provincial development and reform commissions and relevant departments, assist private enterprises in implementing conditions for revitalizing existing assets, and support more private investment projects in issuing infrastructure REITs. Next, we will encourage private enterprises to optimize their development models, activate existing assets, accelerate capital turnover and improve capital utilization efficiency without increasing debt ratios, and invest in industries with greater development space such as new energy; Encourage private enterprises to actively participate in revitalizing the existing assets of state-owned enterprises, and use infrastructure REITs as one of the investment exit channels, striving to form a win-win situation.
