Gu Yang Economic Daily

Recently, two pieces of news about high-speed rail have attracted much attention. First, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which operates at the fastest speed in the world, has ushered in its 10th anniversary; Second, Hangzhou-Shaow-Taiwan Railway has achieved full track laying and running, and will become China's first private controlled high-speed rail line after its official operation by the end of the year.

As one of the world's busiest rail lines, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail is far ahead in profitability. Public information shows that between 2014 and 2019, The net profit of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway increased by 39.4% annually. Even under the severe impact of Xinguan pneumonia epidemic in 2020, it still achieved a profit of 4586 million yuan, which is a veritable benchmark for high-speed railway profitability.

Such a high return, I am afraid there is no social capital not tempted. But for a long time, social capital has mostly played a supporting role in railway construction, especially in such an important infrastructure field of people's livelihood as high-speed rail. It was unimaginable for social capital to achieve absolute control. Now, the Hangzhou-Shaow-Taiwan high-speed railway is the first to "eat crabs," taking the lead in realizing the absolute control of social capital.Although its market prospects are uncertain in the short term, it will be a far-reaching icebreaker for the reform of the national railway investment and financing system。

In recent years, social parties to open and encourage social capital to participate in major infrastructure construction calls are increasing. For the need of economic development, some localities have made some useful exploration to attract social capital to participate in the construction of infrastructure projects and made some progress. But overall,Social capital in participating in the construction of projects is still lack of a clear grasp, asymmetric information, high financing costs and other factors, so that many social capital deterred。

Because of this, the "pool of spring water" stirred by the Hangzhou-Shao-Taiwan high-speed railway brings confidence to the social capital in the wait-and-see hesitation. This confidence comes not only from innovation in equity structure,More from the social capital to obtain a more adequate operating rights, income rights for good expectations。

It is understood that Hangzhou-Shaow-Taiwan high-speed rail holdings from the beginning to establish a "railway + PPP + industry" operation model, clearly proposedThrough property, shops, advertising space and more flexible exploration of commercialisation, replacing the traditional model of relying solely on ticket revenue. For example, the development reform, the State Railway Group and other departments have made it clear that they will support enterprises to determine their own fares, determine the number of trains, and give them the right to make decisions freely. In addition, social capital will benefit from the potential benefits of upgrading urban efficiency, industrial agglomeration and expanding employment brought by high-speed rail.

It should be said that these policy initiatives demonstrate the government's determination and sincerity to attract social capital to participate in infrastructure construction, and also fully demonstrate the rational attitude of all parties to the project to respect the law of economic operation and follow the principle of marketization. As market analysis points out, under the new model,More emphasis on the rate of return on investment social capital is expected to be more focused on the people's livelihood security functions between the formation of a more benign and efficient interaction between the state-owned capital, which will help further the key role of investment.

At present, China's economy is continuing to recover. It is expected that consumption and investment demand will slowly recover in the second half of the year, which will give a stronger impetus to economic recovery.In this context, to further enhance the growth stamina of private investment, we must continuously stimulate the vitality of various social capitalOn the one hand, we should open up the market access of private enterprises, support their innovation and development, encourage private capital to participate in the construction of "two new and one heavy" projects and complement the weaknesses; On the other hand, we should strengthen the investment capacity of social capital, innovate investment methods, promote the implementation of cost-cutting policies for private enterprises, and make good use of bank credit, market bonds and other financial instruments.

Of course, to fully mobilize market subjects and social forces to participate in infrastructure construction, we should also make overall plans to strengthen the foundation, increase functions, benefit the long-term, benefit people's health, and prevent risks.In this process, we should fully stimulate the endogenous driving role of innovation. At present, in addition to the Hangzhou-Shaow-Taiwan high-speed railway taking the lead in the investment and financing system, The pilot of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector is also steadily underway, and we can expect more such innovations in the future to expand the scope for social capital to participate deeply in infrastructure construction.