Based on the general idea of the above-mentioned reform of investment and financing system for urban infrastructure projects, combined with the characteristics of project financing, the author believes that it is a realistic and feasible choice to promote project financing for low-profit public welfare projects, and the specific analysis is as follows. A large part of foreign infrastructure construction projects are carried out in the form of project financing. As a professional financial term, project financing has the following characteristics:

(1) Project financing refers to loans provided by financiers to specific projects, and the investors who provide loans can be equity investors or lenders independent of equity investors;

(2) Project financing relies on the future income generated by the project itself as its repayment guarantee, which is the most fundamental difference from general loan financing of financial institutions. In addition, project financing in a typical sense does not depend on the guarantee of the host government or other departments and institutions, and its creditors have no recourse against the host government and its financial institutions that have not fulfilled their guarantee obligations. Therefore, project financing is also called "non-recourse financing";

(3) Project financing spreads risks to all parties related to the project through a series of contracts and agreements. The investor's liability to the project lender is limited to its capital contribution (share capital). In other words, the lender of project financing has no recourse to the assets and other income invested by the project owner (the equity investor of the project). Therefore, project financing is also called "limited recourse financing".

Therefore, the real project financing is essentially different from the main city construction credit funds raised by domestic professional investment companies.

The latter is basically policy funds. Although the use of this part of funds is commercialized, its investment and repayment are still included in the "unified borrowing and repayment" mode of professional investment companies, which is guaranteed by the company's assets, and its debt risk cannot be dispersed. However, the investment and repayment mechanism of project financing well balances the interests of the project and project investors in terms of project income, capital risk and financial credit. At the same time, project financing itself also has the following requirements: the projects targeted by project financing are mainly projects that can generate investment income (but the possibility of applying them to low-profit public welfare projects is not ruled out); Because the project company bears the main costs and risks of project construction and future management, the cost and expenses of project financing are generally higher than other financing methods, at least in the initial stage of project investment. Based on the above ideas, the following scheme is designed:

(1) Assets reorganization and separation of professional investment companies. With the help of the capital market, the assets of professional investment companies are reorganized, and the company's stock assets are divided into two categories: profit and non-profit (also known as meager profit). Profitable assets are merged into the asset plate with listed companies as the core owned by professional investment companies. For professional investment companies that have not controlled listed companies before, they can take these high-quality assets as the core, set up joint-stock companies or participate in and control listed companies, and then carry out financing and operation through holding companies to bear risks independently; Low-profit assets are mainly based on policy support investment and financing, and strive to maximize commercial operation;

(2) Take the way of "government-led, social assistance and multi-party financing" to solve the funding problem and build a new pattern of diversified investment and financing for investors. Broaden the financing channels for low-profit projects, including: government investment, international funding, support from beneficiary units, risk guarantee for insured enterprises, investment by professional companies, and supplementary operating income.

(3) Set up a sinking fund to support low-profit public welfare investment projects. The original intention of sinking fund is to ensure the timely repayment of debt funds, thus enhancing the debtor's financial credit and reducing financial risks; At the same time, the main sources of sinking fund are financial subsidies, tax rebates and land lease income from government departments, which is one of the important channels for government departments to win preferential policies and financial support for urban construction;

(4) Sinking funds are injected into low-profit public welfare investment projects to realize the reorganization of project investment income. Because the credit mode of project financing is inseparable from the asset organization form of financing (project company), from the financial point of view, if the project company's own assets (including future project assets and equity assets invested in project construction) can solve the investment return problem, then the source of credit funds for project financing will be guaranteed. Injecting sinking funds into low-profit public welfare projects is not only a simple solution to the problem of funds and credit, but also a problem of building a new mechanism for government infrastructure construction. It is not only a government behavior, but also a market-oriented behavior of government-supported construction projects. The established sinking fund must be standardized in operation. Professional investment companies must have a clear understanding and cannot blindly expand the financial and credit guarantee functions of sinking funds. The basic framework of injecting meager profit projects into sinking fund is drawn up: according to the actual situation,

(1) The sinking fund is an independent legal person and operates according to market principles. On the premise of ensuring the liquidity of the fund, invest in the currency and capital markets and obtain investment income under the finite risk;

(2) The main sources of funds for sinking funds are non-debt capital gains, including financial allocation, tax refund, land lease income, investment income, etc.

(3) The sinking fund shall choose low-profit projects with good social benefits and potential for appreciation, and provide financial support by providing credit guarantees and interest subsidies.

(4) The sinking fund adopts a new type of cooperation between banks and enterprises, that is, an agreement is reached with commercial banks to deposit a certain amount of funds into a special bank account in the form of margin according to the specific conditions of low-profit projects, and the agreed banks will provide loans to low-profit projects according to the guarantee magnification agreed in the agreement. The deposit will be used as the financial support of the sinking fund for low-profit projects, providing interest subsidies and credit guarantees, and limiting the maximum risk limit of professional investment companies.

(5) Under the coordination of the government, financial institutions and construction units jointly set up regional and professional credit re-guarantee institutions (or credit insurance institutions) for urban infrastructure construction to provide re-guarantee services for low-profit public welfare investment projects and implement guarantee risk control. According to China's urban construction level and development plan, there will be a large number of low-profit public welfare infrastructure projects in the next few years, and it is imperative to solve their funding problems. At present, some urban construction projects (and other infrastructure projects) in China have implemented project financing in some investment projects, and achieved good results. But these are basically profitable projects, and they are all guaranteed. In this sense, there is no precedent for low-profit public welfare projects to use project financing for construction.

There are many reasons for this situation, one of which is that people in the industry are limited by the static connotation of project financing and lack of dynamic analysis of all parties in project financing from the financial theory related to capital market. It is feasible, at least one of the ideas worth exploring, to set up a sinking fund to finance the project and introduce social funds and foreign capital into urban infrastructure projects.