27 major water conservancy projects to begin construction within the year
Jiao Yong, vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office yesterday that this year China's water conservancy investment will still be tilted toward the construction of major water conservancy projects, accounting for about 45% of all water conservancy investment. According to the introduction, 27 major water conservancy projects are planned to begin construction this year, all of which have now been approved, and nearly half of the projects are in the western region.
Since last year, the construction of major water conservancy projects in China has begun to accelerate across the board. In 2014, 17 major water conservancy projects began construction, including Datengxia on the Xijiang River, Chushandian on the Huai River, Jiayan in Guizhou, and Laluo in Tibet, and major water conservancy projects under construction have reached 57.
At present, China's water conservancy investment is mainly government investment, with a relatively low degree of participation by social capital. Jiao Yong said that the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Water Resources have jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding Social Capital to Participate in the Construction and Operation of Major Water Conservancy Projects", and a batch of major water conservancy projects attracting social capital investment will be introduced to mobilize the enthusiasm of social capital to participate in the construction and management of water conservancy projects.
“It is necessary to give play to the leverage role of fiscal funds so that more social capital enters the water conservancy industry. First, for water conservancy engineering projects that are mainly public welfare in nature, the government should add a certain amount of capital. For each major project, wherever there is a market return, the rate of return must be calculated. If the rate of return is lower than the long-term treasury bond interest rate, we must use the method of injecting capital through fiscal funds to make the rate of return higher than the treasury bond interest rate, thus giving enterprises a certain enthusiasm to invest in water conservancy.” Jiao Yong said.
“Social capital is relatively concerned about water prices and electricity prices. We are now considering that for each major water conservancy project, especially when considering source water prices, we should consider how to set prices more fully, including project costs, environmental protection costs, and so on. If the price is raised somewhat, the attractiveness to enterprises' investment will be higher.” Jiao Yong revealed that this year China will select a batch of projects to carry out relevant pilot demonstration work.
Chen Mingzhong, director of the Department of Water Resources of the Ministry of Water Resources, introduced at the press conference that, on the basis of summarizing last year's experience in assessing the implementation of the strictest water resources management system, this year's assessment work has been launched, and the scope of assessment will be further expanded to cover 31 provinces across the country. This year's assessment procedures will be broader and stricter than last year's. In the design of the indicator system, the weight of the quantified indicators of the “three red lines” has been raised to 40%. In terms of assessment content, follow-up on problems existing in last year's assessment has also been added.