Moderator Yang Meng: Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Doing a Good Job in Issuing Special Bonds of Local Governments and Supporting Financing for Projects (hereinafter referred to as the Notice). The document pointed out that the coordination of fiscal, monetary and investment policies should be strengthened, in which some major projects are allowed to use special bonds as project capital to incite investment, and financial institutions are actively encouraged to provide supporting financing support. Then, after the issuance of the "Notice", how much driving effect can it bring to China's economy? In this regard, this topic is interpreted from three angles.
The Notice puts forward clear requirements for supporting the financing of special bond projects, including reasonably defining the standards of financial support for special bond projects, accurately focusing on key areas and major projects, actively encouraging financial institutions to provide supporting financing support, allowing special bonds to be used as qualified capital for major projects, and ensuring the fulfillment of the due debt repayment responsibilities.
the relevant research report of citic securities believes that the circular actively encourages financial institutions to provide supporting financing support, and allows some major projects (railways supported by the state, national highways and local highways supporting the promotion of major national strategies, power supply and gas supply projects, etc.) to use special bonds as project capital, which can largely reflect this effect: financial funds are used as start-up funds, while other forms of financing, such as bank credit, form a complete set to leverage, thus helping the financing of infrastructure construction.
According to the data provided by the Ministry of Finance, from January to May 219, 1,459.6 billion yuan of new bonds were issued, including 859.8 billion yuan of new special bonds. The scale of bond issuance has accounted for 47.4% of the new local government debt limit of 3.8 trillion yuan in 219, and the issuance progress is close to half, exceeding the scheduled progress. The issue interest rate has gradually become market-oriented, and its scale, term and category are also more in line with the financing and development needs of local governments.
Guo xiaobei believes that the most important factor that restricts infrastructure at present is the issue of funds. This Notice allows some projects to use special bonds as capital. According to her calculation, under the most optimistic circumstances, it can incite debt funds of about 7 billion yuan.
The issuance of the Notice does not mean relaxing the management and control of debt risks. Regarding how to prevent the financing risks of special bonds and projects, the relevant person in charge said that the Notice has established a risk prevention and control system from five aspects: reasonably defining financing standards, strictly controlling project capital conditions, ensuring the implementation of debt repayment responsibilities, ensuring the matching of project financing and debt repayment capacity, and strengthening follow-up evaluation and supervision. While using reform methods, it has resolutely laid a good foundation for prevention and resolution.
According to the person in charge, special bonds must be used for projects with certain income. For major projects that have no income, they will be supported by coordinating financial budget funds and general bonds of local governments. For major projects with a certain income and all the income belongs to the income of government funds, financing with special bonds; For major projects with revenue from both government funds and other special operating income, and with residual special operating income after repayment of principal and interest, the project unit may make market-oriented financing to financial institutions according to the remaining special operating income not included in the budget management.
In addition, allowing some special bond funds as a certain proportion of project capital should meet three conditions at the same time: First, it should be a major project supported by special bonds, which is in line with the major decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee in the State Council and has a great demonstration and driving effect; Second, the fields involved are mainly railways and national highways supported by the state and local highways, power supply and gas supply projects that support the implementation of major national strategies; The third is to evaluate the project income, except for the repayment of the principal and interest of special bonds, and other projects with market-oriented financing conditions for financial institutions.
Moreover, the Notice clearly stipulates that it is not allowed to over-finance beyond the actual level of project income, and requires local governments to strictly implement special bonds in real government investment projects. It is not allowed to use special bonds as the source of funds for various equity funds such as government investment funds and industrial investment funds, and it is not allowed to inject capital through intermediate links such as establishing shell companies and multi-level subsidiaries, so as to avoid layer-by-layer nesting and layer-by-layer amplification of leverage.