Chi Su Jin Sheng: A private-owned high-speed rail line speeds up the reform of the market access system
2024-08-12
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This article is transferred from [People's Daily Client];
On July 30, another high-speed railway project in China with private capital investment and operation, the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Railway, started trial operation, and the countdown to the opening of the entire line has begun.
Next to it, China's first privately-owned high-speed railway, the Hangzhou-Taiwan High-Speed Railway, has been in operation for two years. Passenger traffic has been rising steadily. In the first quarter of this year, it transported more than 2.35 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 161%.
From the birth of the Hangzhou-Taiwan High-Speed Railway, we can see the Chinese government's continued efforts to break down market barriers and create a fair and competitive market environment.
In 2016, China's National Development and Reform Commission listed the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou High-Speed Railway (formerly known as the Hangzhou-Taiwan High-Speed Railway) as one of the first batch of social capital investment demonstration projects. This reform attempts to build a complete system to make clear arrangements for the subsequent operation, profitability, and exit mechanisms of private capital railway projects.
First, the controlling rights of private capital were clarified. As Jiao Xuxiang, then head of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway Coordination Group, said, the controlling position eliminated the concerns of private enterprises that they could only contribute money but not make decisions, attracted more private enterprises to participate in infrastructure construction, and enriched the sources of funds for infrastructure investment.
Finally, as a high-quality asset, the Hangzhou-Taizhou High-Speed Railway is owned by Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway Co., Ltd. The controlling shareholder of the company is the Zhejiang Merchants Private Consortium led by Fosun Group, which holds 51% of the shares; the National Railway Group holds 15%, the Zhejiang Provincial Government holds 13.6%, and the Shaoxing and Taizhou Municipal Governments hold a total of 20.4%.
Secondly, explore and formulate an investment return mechanism to allow private capital to "come in, make money, and exit."
According to the agreement, the cooperation period of Hangzhou-Taiwan High-speed Railway is 34 years, including 4 years of construction period and 30 years of operation period. During the operation period, Hangzhou-Taiwan High-speed Railway can obtain part of the passenger ticket revenue through "line usage fees" and other means. Statistics show that the average daily passenger volume of Hangzhou-Taiwan High-speed Railway has increased from 8,900 in the early days of opening to 21,400, with a maximum of 46,000 passengers per day. In 2023, the passenger flow will reach 15 million, a year-on-year increase of 200%. The steady increase in passenger flow has brought a steady increase in revenue.
At the same time, the Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway has also designed a minimum income guarantee plan. As a basic transportation facility, the high-speed railway can effectively drive regional economic development. According to incomplete statistics, in the two years since the Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway was put into operation, its contribution rate to the tourism industry along the line of Shaoxing and Taizhou was about 4%, its contribution rate to the newly added employment population in the areas along the line was about 3%, and its contribution rate to GDP was about 2%. Therefore, during the 30-year operation period of the Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway, the provincial and municipal governments will provide feasibility gap subsidies for project operations in accordance with the agreement.
The Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway has effectively stimulated social capital investment and explored a new model for the reform of the railway investment and financing system. After that, there have been more cases of private capital entering the railway. Take the Hangzhou-Wenzhou high-speed railway as an example. Its first phase project, the Yiwu-Wenzhou section, still adopts the private capital holding model, with private capital party Parkson United Group holding 51% of the shares.
It's not just high-speed rail. In the field of nuclear power, China has also taken steps to open up to social capital: on June 1 this year, the first phase of the Sanmao Nuclear Power Station interconnection project was successfully completed and put into operation. This is China's first nuclear power project that allows private capital to participate in the equity, creating a new model for mixed-ownership reform of nuclear power companies.
In recent years, the Chinese government has steadily promoted the construction of a high-standard market system, and has thoroughly implemented the negative list system for market access and the fair competition review system, making the market environment more efficient, standardized and fair. By the end of 2023, there were 184 million registered business entities, of which more than 53 million were private enterprises, an increase of 2.3 times and 3.9 times respectively compared with 2012.
Further deepening of reform will allow private enterprises to obtain more market opportunities. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed "upholding and implementing the 'two unshakable' principles" and "promoting the complementary advantages and common development of various ownership economies", and especially proposed "promoting fair opening of competitive infrastructure areas to business entities". In the future, with the detailed implementation of reform measures, the continuous improvement of relevant systems, and the further removal of market barriers, the willingness, ability and level of private enterprises to participate in major projects will continue to improve.
