How can the innovative practice of rural property rights mortgage financing be advanced?

Advancing rural property rights financing is an important part of deepening rural reform. It is innovation carried out in the "deep-water zone," with intricate and complex circumstances and a myriad of tasks. It requires both top-level design and, even more so, rolling up one's sleeves and getting to work. Studying foreign advanced experience, domestic exploratory practice and the approach to rural property rights financing in Tianjin, it can be summarized as a "six-in-one" model.

Rights confirmation and certificate issuance. China's land is collectively owned. To advance rural property rights mortgage financing, farmers must be granted property rights over land, that is, rights confirmation and certificate issuance must be carried out. On the premise of upholding collective land ownership and maintaining the stability of existing contracting relationships, the ownership relationships of land ownership rights, contracting rights and operating rights must be clarified, and various rights confirmation methods such as confirming land, confirming benefits and confirming shares must be adopted to implement rural property rights down to the household. Confirming rights and issuing certificates, and granting farmers property rights in accordance with the law, is the first step in advancing rural property rights financing. The central government required that all pilot projects for land contracting and operating rights be completed by 2017, and provinces and municipalities are actively advancing this. Tianjin is currently actively carrying out the confirmation and certificate issuance work for rural land contracting and operating rights, forest rights and agricultural facilities, implementing contracting and operating rights down to the household and forest rights and agricultural facilities down to the owner.

Public notice of ownership. Registering the ownership of rural property rights used for mortgage financing is a necessary procedure. Germany, the United States, Japan and others have all established strict mortgage registration systems. For example, Germany legislated in 1772 to establish a mortgage right public notice system. At present, China's rural property rights financing has a mortgage registration step, but there are problems such as registration authorities being too dispersed, registration rules not being unified, and inconvenient inquiries. In addition, the inadequacy of paper-based registration makes disputes such as illegal mortgages and mortgages with forged certificates prone to occur. Tianjin has unified agricultural facility mortgage registration and inquiry public notice, and forest right inquiry public notice, at a financing registration service institution approved by the central bank. If ownership certification has not been obtained in accordance with the law or registration is prohibited by state regulations, registration is not granted. Inquiry into the ownership of the subject matter is a necessary procedure for handling mortgage financing. This is an important innovation in Tianjin.

Mortgage financing. Rural property rights mortgage financing plays an important role in the development of modern agriculture in developed countries and is an important part and breakthrough point in deepening China's rural financial reform. At present, on the basis of rights confirmation and certificate issuance and public notice of ownership, many regions in China are actively guiding financial institutions to design financing products for rural property rights, improve internal control mechanisms, implement positive incentives, open green channels, revitalize rural resources for mortgage financing, and guide financial capital to serve rural economic and social development. In rural property rights mortgage financing, Tianjin highlights strengthening agriculture, enriching farmers and increasing efficiency, mainly promoting mortgage financing for three types of projects: new business entities, emerging business forms and industrial upgrading, so as to promote large-scale land operation and develop modern agriculture.

Guarantee and credit enhancement. Under current circumstances, guarantee and credit enhancement is the key to advancing rural property rights mortgage financing. Germany and the United States do not have guarantees, but grassroots cooperatives play a credit-enhancing role, and the agricultural credit guarantee fund in the Taiwan region of China provides guarantees. In China's current advancement of rural property rights mortgage financing, guarantee and credit enhancement is particularly important and indispensable, because there are problems such as difficulty in disposing of rural property rights and legal obstacles. Financial institutions cannot directly accept rural property rights mortgages, and rural property rights mortgage rights are very difficult to realize in practice. Practice in places such as Chongqing and Chengdu shows this point. To advance rural property rights financing work, Tianjin has specially approved the establishment of a municipal-level agricultural investment guarantee company funded entirely by the government, and is studying and formulating cooperation mechanisms for joint guarantee, co-guarantee and re-guarantee with district and county guarantee institutions, so as to provide guarantee and credit enhancement for rural property rights mortgage financing.

Transfer and disposal. Disposing of non-performing assets is an important link in rural property rights financing. At present, there are mainly two methods for disposing of non-performing assets in China: directed transfer, in which a directed transferee is determined before the loan and, when risk occurs, the directed transferee repays on behalf and receives the mortgaged property, as in Shouguang, Shandong; and non-directed transfer, in which after non-performance occurs, institutions such as land reserve centers and asset management companies acquire the assets and then transfer and dispose of them through rural property rights exchanges, as in Chongqing, which will establish an asset management company. Tianjin will establish an asset management company and, together with the Tianjin Rural Property Rights Exchange Center, dispose of non-performing assets.

Policy support. Rural finance is a weak link in rural development. To advance rural property rights financing, the government needs to take the initiative and provide policy support for rural property rights mortgage financing. Developed countries provide support in areas such as legislation, interest subsidies, taxation and bond issuance. At present, pioneering regions in China's property rights mortgage financing have either formulated risk compensation measures, formulated judicial support opinions, or provided guarantee fee subsidies. Tianjin will formulate fiscal support policies, provide interest subsidies for rural property rights mortgage loans, subsidize guarantee fees, provide risk compensation for possible loan losses, and at the same time issue judicial support opinions and provide judicial support, so as to provide strong support and safeguards for rural property rights mortgage financing work.