A senior official with the Beijing municipal government
Wednesday promised more opportunities for non-governmental capital
in the city's stepped-up development of infrastructure
facilities.
"We should use innovative ways to break industry barriers to
attract more social funds through the market," Liu Yongfu, director
of the Construction Commission of the Beijing Municipal Government,
told the Standing Committee of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's
Congress at its seventh session.
"By introducing a market competition mechanism, social funds
should be allowed to be used in the construction of major municipal
engineering projects through joint funding, joint operating, taking
on shares, franchising, and project financing," Liu said.
Specifically, social funds will be welcomed in such areas as
rail transport, public utilities and environmental projects.
The Beijing municipal government has been announcing major
engineering projects each year, in order to give a substantial push
to the city's infrastructure upgrades. Out of 60 such projects this
year, 47 have started construction, while the rest will be started
before the end of this year, according to Liu.
As much as 32.81 billion yuan (US$3.97 billion) has been
invested in these projects this year so far, roughly one third of
the city's total investment in fixed assets for that period.
But were it not for financing difficulties, more projects would
have been kicked off, said Liu.
In particular, Liu said, the commission should pay more
attention to the investment intentions of large international
companies and attract more of them to get involved in the rapid
economic development of Beijing through mergers, acquisitions and
transfers of state-owned shares.
As far as Liu is concerned, the construction of these major
engineering projects has produced obvious improvements in local
investment and the city's natural environment.
One case in point, said Liu, is the completion of an
afforestation project of 59,363 hectares aimed at reducing the
city's sandstorms, which has helped the city enjoy 161 days of good
air quality by September 15 this year, 62.6 percent of the total
number of days so far.
Also at Wednesday's session, the standing committee urged the
municipal government to adopt effective measures to attract more
investment from Taiwan as well.
Although the city has published various practical measures to
ensure its appeal to Taiwan investors, Overseas Chinese Affairs
Standing Committee Director Chen Xingbo said Beijing still needs
better monitoring mechanisms to safeguard the legitimate rights of
Taiwanese investors and their families.
(China Daily October 16, 2003)