Bringing up Private Investment

The Chinese Government promises private investors a bigger role in the country’s booming industry sector

By LAN XINZHEN

Encouraging and guiding healthy development of private investment was at the forefront of the State Council’s latest measures to invigorate the private sector.

The State Council’s notice, introduced on July 26, will promote another guideline issued earlier in May. Private capital will be encouraged to play a role in the industrial sector, including primary industries and infrastructure construction; science, technology and industries related to national defense;fi nancial services; and reorganizing of stateowned enterprises, said the State Council.

Relevant policies and measures were divided into 40 assignments for more than 20 ministries and commissions under the State Council, such as the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance (MOF), as well as local governments. These designated responsibilities meant to promote private investment re fl ect the government’s determination to break down barriers now facing private capital,said Chen Yongjie, Director of Department of Research with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

Urging each ministry to play its role in promoting private investment will safeguard the legitimate interests of private investors and ensure the rapid growth of private capital, said Huang Guitian, Deputy Dean of the School of Economics at Peking University.

Playing the role

While at least one ministry will lead each of the 40 assignments, the leading ministry can request collaboration of up to a dozen other ministries and commissions to ensure the assignment’s completion.

The NDRC, MOF, the Ministry of Transport, Civil Aviation Administration of China and other relevant ministries are responsible for promoting private investment in infrastructure projects including highways,water transportation routes, ports, airports,power grids, and mining and drilling facilities.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, NDRC and MOF are responsible for boosting private investment in municipal utilities. The NDRC and MOF, in addition to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will also facilitate private investment in health care,education, training and other social welfare programs.

The State Council notice also allows private investors to offer financial services.Private investors are encouraged to take stakes in commercial banks during their fund raising and to restructure rural and urban credit cooperatives. They can also establish village- and township-based banks, small loan companies and rural savings and credit cooperatives.The China Banking Regulatory Commission,People’s Bank of China, NDRC, MOF, State Administration of Taxation, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT),and insurance and security regulators will supervise these fi nancial activities.

The notice requires the MOF, NDRC and the Ministry of Science and Technology(MST) to promote private investment in homegrown technology-oriented research and development (R&D) and to focus on products with higher added value by offering tax cuts and other incentives. Private companies should own IPR-protected core technologies and make breakthroughs in other major national R&D projects, according to the State Council notice.

Strategic emerging industries must not be neglected, and private investment should be widely applied to the latest information technologies to upgrade traditional production processes across China’s many industries.Those in the private sector are invited to invest in environmental, medical and new energy industries to spur growth and innovation. The NDRC, MOF, MIIT, MST and the Ministry of Environment Protection will be responsible for related incentives and supervision over investment in these fi elds.

The notice particularly addresses the importance of creating an environment conducive to boosting private investments,requiring the Legislative Affairs Of fi ce of the State Council be responsible for revising laws,regulations or rules that could suffocate private investments. Such revisions are expected to safeguard the legitimate interests of private investors and nurture an investment environment for fair competition. While drafting laws, rules or policies involving private investments, legislators are required to take into consideration opinions and suggestions from relevant chambers of commerce and private companies, in order to meet their reasonable demand.

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Ministry and commission efforts should provide guidance and standard administra-tion services regarding private investment,said the notice. For instance, relevant departments have to collect more data on private investment in order to precisely record and reflect the development and distribution of private investment in China. Major investment supervisors like the NDRC, and industry administrators, as well as industrial associations, are required to closely monitor changes in private investment and make analyses in order to guide investors. An information disclosure platform should be established to keep the public up to date on industrial policies, development blueprints,market access standards and industrial trends in domestic and overseas markets. The platform will help private investors avoid blind investment, said the notice.

New momentum

Private capital boomed soon after the Chinese Government launched the reform and opening-up policy in late 1978. The government has since consistently supported private capital, raising its proportion in the country’s fixed-asset investments year by year.

Private investments grew 28.6 percent in the first half of 2010, while state-owned and state-controlled investments were up 21.5 percent, said statistics from China’s central bank.

But private investment could be growing much faster. Barriers loom large, and discrimination against private investors remains prevalent in some traditional and monopolized industries. Banks favor large projects and state-owned enterprises, which poses a substantial challenge to private companies during fund raising.

Most of China’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) of stimulus package had been earmarked by the end of 2009, with a majority of it going to state-owned enterprises. Some local governments even expanded the stateowned sector and allowed it to account for a larger part of the local economy through restructuring and integration, making it even more dif fi cult for private capital to survive.

NDRC statistics showed private capital is less visible in traditional and monopolized industries, accounting for 13.6 percent in power and heat generation and supply industries, 12.3 percent in education, 11.8 percent in health care and social security, 9.6 percent in fi nance, 7.8 percent in computer services and software, 7.5 percent in logistics, 6.6 percent in water conservancy, environment and public facilities management, and merely 5.9 percent in public management and social organization.

Huang said 2010 would be a challenging year for the Chinese economy, especially in terms of ensuring that the economic recovery continues to gather steam while the government decreases its involvement. Measures have to be adopted to effectively promote private investment and turn public savings into investment, letting them become a motive force for fast economic growth, he said.

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The State Council opened some monopolized industries to private capital in 2005, but private companies have developed slowly in these areas, even after the introduction of a new guideline in May this year.The sluggish expansion is largely due to the monopoly still enjoyed by state-owned enterprises today, which has hindered private investments in these sectors. The Central Government is determined to break down these monopolies, but local governments and relevant ministries are slow to implement the policies since they share certain bene fi ts with the monopolies to some extent, he said.

Prompt implementation of the policies,the Central Government has stated, will be necessary to encourage and guide private investment, which will help clear the way for private investment to fl ourish, Chen said.

If these commitments are fulfilled, private investors will be more active in bringing decisive changes to China’s current economic structure, he said. ■

Private investments grew 28.6 percent in the first half of 2010, while stateowned and state-controlled investments were up 21.5 percent

Evolution of Private Economy

A string of policies have allowed China’s private economy to develop from one barely existent in 1949 after the founding of New China to one that now accounts for more than half of the country’s total economic output. The development is generally divided into five phases∶

1949-79 Private companies were almost extinguished on the Chinese mainland.

1979-82 Self-employed and private businesses appeared in urban and rural areas following the beginning of China’s rural reform in late 1978.

1982-92 The private economy was legitimately recognized by the 1988 amendments to China’s Constitution and has since fl ourished.

1992-2005 Private sector development took off after Deng Xiaoping issued explicit statements during a tour of south China to encourage the development of private companies and private capital.The private sector was recognized as an important part of China’s socialist market economy at the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1997,which further promoted its development.

2005-present The private economy has been given unprecedented opportunities to grow during this period, thanks to an array of policies introduced to encourage and guide its sound development.