Chongqing Water Resources Reform Establishes Investment Mode

Although it was only at the end of February, the spring drought has risen.

“With the completion of the “Water Tank” of the Water Bar Reservoir, this year, even if there is more serious drought than in 2006, drinking water supply for more than 200,000 people in the urban and surrounding four or five townships will be satisfactory. "The director of Dongjiang Water, the director of the Minjiang District Water Department, was calm in his discourse.

The completion of the Hulanju Reservoir is closely related to the innovative water investment and financing model introduced by the city.

The time for water conservancy shortboards was forced back to 2003, and as the city’s economic development continues to accelerate, water conservancy has become the weakest short board. Prominent shortage of water and droughts and floods are increasingly plaguing local economic development.

At that time, this group of data was impressive: The average per capita area of ​​drought and flood protection in the city was only 0.18 mu, ranking the first in the west; the average per capita water pumping capacity was only 28.3% of the national average, ranking the lowest in the west; More than four quarters of counties and cities fail to meet the basic flood control requirements. The flood prevention embankment built by the city is only 192 kilometers, ranking the second lowest in the west; the city has 1,475 dangerous reservoirs, with a dangerous rate of over 50%; three quarters The drinking water of the above rural residents is not safe, and there are serious water shortages in more than 10 counties and nearly 500 townships.

“The water conservancy reform is forced out of this kind of predicament.” Wang Aizu, the director of the city’s water conservancy, said that to effectively solve the engineering water shortage problem, funds are a big problem. No matter whether it is relying on central investment or relying on its own level of finance, it cannot be realized in the short term. Only by reforming the institutional mechanism can it find its way out.

At the end of 2003, the city determined to reform and set up a municipal water conservancy investment and financing platform - Chongqing Water Investment Group.

Relying on water, water, electricity, water supply, and relying on the city water investment group, this city has fully leveraged the leverage of financial funds and established the general idea of ​​“relying water, raising water, and recharging public welfare functions with operating income”. .

In fact, at the beginning of establishment, Shuishui Group had only 1.64 billion yuan in capital, which made it difficult to achieve substantial financing. The real high gold content is the many policies promulgated by the municipal party committee and municipal government:

First, the function of granting municipal water and investment to the land bank of the Group is mainly used to solve the financial support problems of the districts and counties. Land reserves will be developed in the districts and counties where the water conservancy projects are located, and the land reserve income will be used to make up for the insufficiency of local self-financing in the construction of water conservancy projects. At the same time, it is promised that the surplus of land revenue will also be used for local water conservancy construction.

Take Yuzhanzu Reservoir on the Minjiang River as an example, the construction of the project requires local matching funds of more than 200 million yuan. According to the original “three-four-four” investment method, nearly 40% of the funds will be raised by districts and counties. The Minjiang River has limited financial resources and it cannot provide full support. After the establishment of the Shuitou Group, the then Qianjiang County government took out 2,000 mu of land to the Shishui Investment Group for land reserve, and entrusted Shishui Investment Group with the assets of a 10,000-kilowatt installed power station. The construction of the Hulanju Reservoir was completed and put into use in 2008.

The second is to allocate part of resource projects for the municipal water investment group, such as hydropower stations, urban water supply, etc., to make up for the lack of public-funded water conservancy investment through operating income. According to reports, the city's water supply in 25 districts and counties is currently in charge of the city's water investment group. At the same time, in accordance with the principle of “bridging in small steps and gradually putting it in place”, we will gradually increase the collection standards for water resource fees and enhance the hematopoietic function of water conservancy projects.

The third is to increase financial investment and tax deductions. According to reports, the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the municipal government to implement water conservancy construction funds 8 billion yuan, is the "fifteen" period of nearly 10 times.

Wang Aizu said that relying on the City Water Investment Group, Chongqing Water Resources has achieved a “government-led, bank-supported, and platform-operational” financing model, breaking through the fund-raising bottleneck of public- benefit water projects. City Shuitou Group gave full play to the role of the financing platform for the overall planning of urban and rural water conservancy development. Through the way of land reserve, pledge of charging rights, and issuance of corporate bonds, the company has completed a total investment of 28 billion yuan, which is the amount of investment in key water conservancy projects in the city during the “10th five-year plan” period. 14.7 times.

Build the mechanism and rebuild the project first After the water development in our city breaks through the bottleneck of capital, how to manage and use the project funds is still facing a severe test.

As a result, the city put forward the concept of “build the mechanism first and then build the project”. From the preliminary planning to bidding for projects, from the “Three Publics” to the follow-up audit of the whole process, we constantly build and establish the system. In particular, it actively accepted the supervision of the whole society and completely blocked the irregularities and quality risks of project construction.

Taking the renovation of dangerous reservoirs as an example, the project tender announcement was first published in the municipal media. The entire bidding process was implemented under the joint supervision of the Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission and other relevant administrative supervision departments. The bid-winning construction units that have violated rules and regulations such as encircling bids, subcontracts, and illegal subcontracts, once verified, are recorded in the integrity file, and their qualifications for bids within one to three years are cancelled in accordance with their degree of non-compliance. Key projects throughout the audit supervision. At the same time, the system of three public announcements before the start of construction, before completion of work, and violation of rules and regulations was investigated and actively accepted by the whole society.

At the same time, in order to encourage districts and counties to increase investment in water conservancy, the municipal party committee and the municipal government will include the work of water conservancy into the important contents of the annual appraisal of the party and government leaders of the district and county. At the same time, they will actively explore the establishment of a “bid” investment incentive mechanism for government funds. For the districts and counties that have implemented better self-financing, the project approval, construction start, and arrangement of subsidies for municipal or higher levels are “three priorities”; for urban flood control and urban water supply projects, “fixed-amount subsidies, competition projects, government commitments, and social Publicity and up-to-standard sales numbers." With the rewards and penalties mechanism, since the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, the urban and county governments in the urban areas have invested nearly 5 billion yuan in water conservancy construction funds through fiscal budgets and government credit loans, which is five times the period of the “10th Five-Year Plan”.

In addition, the city is also actively exploring incentive mechanisms for “investment in bids, construction of first subsidies, and who actively support whom” to explore ways for the government to purchase or subsidize public welfare water conservancy services, and to attract people through tenders for landlords, contracted leases, and construction of general contractors. Capital participates in water conservancy construction.