What changes have taken place in Foshan when the new land policy meets new infrastructure?

Foshan seizes new opportunities in infrastructure construction. The picture shows the successful operation of the world's first commercial hydrogen tram line in Gaoming, Foshan. Nanfang Daily reporter Dai Jiaxin photo

The library of new infrastructure projects in various places is still expanding.

The layout of 100 billion-level large projects among cities makes the market for new infrastructure more and more hot. What is more striking is that Zhejiang, Shandong and other places have issued special plans for new infrastructure, and Guangzhou has issued the first district-level "new infrastructure" investment promotion policy in China.

Look a little further. In March this year, the State Council's new policy of delegating the approval authority of agricultural land conversion to construction land to the provincial level may have a far-reaching impact on the urban economic structure driven by new infrastructure investment. In particular, the approval authority for the transfer of rural residents has been delegated to eight pilot provinces such as Guangdong, and land resources have been further transferred to metropolitan areas and key urban agglomerations. New infrastructure projects with a lot of land space and rapid start-up requirements may also be concentrated in these areas.

For Foshan, an important urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province, the new way out for steady growth and recovery brought by the new infrastructure layout may not be far away. Prior to this, Foshan leaders have made it clear that they want to seize new infrastructure opportunities. Under the ever-changing policy background, how do they seize all the advantages to achieve their goals? The answer is that the earlier you plan, the better, and the more systematic and rational you plan, the better.

● Nanfang Daily reporter Wu Xinning

A county "10 new infrastructure project".

Even the districts and counties have made full preparations for planning the new infrastructure layout.

At the end of March, Huangpu District, Guangzhou Development Zone and Guangzhou High-tech Zone released "10 New Infrastructure Project". This first county-level "new infrastructure" industrial policy in China is regarded as a heavy bargaining chip for Guangzhou to strengthen new infrastructure investment. Equally impressive is the strength and comprehensive planning of its awards.

The fact behind this is that from coastal areas to inland areas, all localities are using practical actions to express their determination to take new infrastructure as a "starting point" for steady growth. Especially with the continuous development of domestic epidemic prevention and control, the pace of economic recovery in various places is becoming more and more urgent. Looking at the news of project start-up in various places, we will find that new infrastructure projects start in an endless stream.

At the beginning of April, Nanjing introduced the "combination boxing" policy of new infrastructure, new industries, new consumption and new cities to expand domestic demand. According to its new infrastructure plan, Nanjing plans to invest 280.7 billion yuan and 30.2 billion yuan respectively in 2020 to accelerate the construction of 50 key new infrastructure projects.

In April, Hunan announced an energy project with a total investment of 2 10.88 billion yuan, with special emphasis on accelerating UHV and charging infrastructure as new infrastructure areas, and will formulate the "14 th Five-Year Plan" for charging infrastructure.

At the end of March, Huangpu District, Guangzhou Development Zone and Guangzhou High-tech Zone, which are more than 60 kilometers away from Foshan, planned and laid out seven major systems 120 new infrastructure projects with a total investment exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Behind this, more top-level system designs based on cities are being rolled out, accelerating the process of urban economic recovery.

Because of the high-tech color of new infrastructure, it depends on the participation of high-tech enterprises to a great extent, and there is a lot of room for the introduction of new technologies and projects. Therefore, how to enlarge and strengthen the increment of projects and technical resources is the focus of the layout of new infrastructure in various places. Under this idea, the new infrastructure planning in many cities has been upgraded from sporadic projects to overall system planning schemes, which has made important policy reserves for attracting high-quality project resources.

Taking Huangpu District, Guangzhou Development Zone and Guangzhou High-tech Zone as examples, the policy focuses on eight aspects, such as rewarding high-end new projects, cultivating new industrial ecology and creating new parks with characteristics. Whether it is the introduction of projects and talents, the underlying technical support or institutional innovation, the corresponding amount of awards and reforms are very clear. The strength of this policy support has attracted much attention. For example, the newly introduced international top digital technology enterprises will be rewarded at a maximum of 15% of the total investment in fixed assets, and the total reward for a single project can reach up to 500 million yuan.

The Guiding Opinions of the General Office of Shandong Provincial People's Government on the Construction of Digital Infrastructure in Shandong Province issued by Shandong Province is regarded as the first provincial planning of new infrastructure in China, which promotes the integration of new infrastructure and traditional infrastructure at the provincial level. This document refers to the layout of intelligent terminal facilities with global awareness, upgrading traditional infrastructure with intelligent integration, and building a safe and credible prevention and control facility system, highlighting the new infrastructure construction direction of "ubiquitous connection, efficient collaboration, global perception, intelligent integration, safety and credibility" in Shandong Province.

These institutional plans also contain many policy innovations. For example, Guangzhou explores new changes in the system, promotes the gradual opening of public data, and implements inclusive and prudent supervision of new formats, new technologies, new models and new products of the digital economy; Shandong has gradually established an institutional mechanism of "multi-regulation integration" for cross-industry infrastructure.

The new situation of decentralization and agitation of land use approval authority

Higher-level policy changes may further change the investment model of new infrastructure.

In March this year, the State Council issued the "Decision on Authorizing and Entrusting the Power of Examination and Approval of Land Use", pointing out that the examination and approval of agricultural land other than permanent basic farmland that the State Council can authorize shall be authorized by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government; At the same time, the approval of converting permanent basic farmland into construction land and land requisition in the State Council is entrusted to the people's governments of some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government for approval. The first batch of pilot provinces are Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong and Chongqing, and the pilot period is 1 year.

This is a new policy that has a far-reaching impact on the introduction and landing of new infrastructure projects. Especially for the important node cities in eight pilot provinces of agricultural land conversion and decentralization of collection and approval, it has greater advantages in the layout of new infrastructure. This is worthy of Foshan's great attention.

Although the overall land use plan and the annual land use plan have not changed, and the current land supply scale has not been greatly affected, the conversion and expropriation of agricultural land such as basic farmland in eight pilot provinces and cities in the future will no longer need to go through the State Council, but will be handled in this province. For local governments that need to quickly start new infrastructure and new industries after the outbreak, this benefit is very affordable.

As we all know, a large number of new infrastructure projects have a great demand for land. In the past, many land use approval procedures had to be reported to the Ministry of Land and Resources for review, and then issued in the name of the State Council. The examination and approval of land use indicators often takes half a year or even a year. Therefore, local projects can't wait for the land use index, so they simply use it without approval, use it while approving it, and some even collect it by rent, resulting in irregular land use. Now the project can be approved after being reported to the province, which shortens the process and improves the efficiency of the project.

Some insiders believe that the decentralization of land examination and approval authority can not only better meet the local land demand, but also promote the optimization of Guangdong's spatial layout, which is the deepening of the reform of "simplifying administration and decentralization, strengthening supervision and improving services". Foshan, located in the pilot province of Guangdong, was previously a pilot city for collective construction land to build rental housing, and Nanhai has long undertaken the pilot task of "three plots" reform. A series of explorations and new favorable land policies have formed a new thrust for the optimization of Foshan's business environment, which has invisibly enhanced the attractiveness of high-quality new projects.

The far-reaching impact of the new policy is that it is consistent with the strategy and thinking of national urban development in recent years, that is, the development of central cities, key urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas will receive more support. These supports will further tilt towards new infrastructure and new industries in the region.

The approved pilot cities are all cities with relatively developed economy, large land demand and relatively mature management, covering almost all major urban agglomerations in China. Such policy coverage may promote Foshan, located in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, one of the most important city circles in China, as an important turning point for its new infrastructure layout leap and growth breakthrough.

PPP, Foshan's new solution?

Of course, whether Foshan can seize the opportunity depends on whether it can adapt to the current situation and flexibly grasp all the advantages that can be grasped, thus forming a strategy that can highlight the differentiated advantages and systematically spread the work.

At a time when many special plans for new infrastructure projects are frequent, Foshan should also form its own complete plan. To strengthen the investment attraction of new infrastructure and stimulate its actual economic driving effect, a clear and detailed planning outline and policy basis are needed. Only by introducing high-end projects, building park carriers, developing new formats, building talent highlands, and clarifying financial subsidies and land security for enterprises can new infrastructure really land and benefit actual development.

In the top-level design, under the trend that the regional land space is expected to be optimized, how to give the project more land resources protection is the key.

Looking at China, it has become the most valuable exploration for many cities to lay out new infrastructure with system and policy innovation.

Shandong has incorporated the construction of digital infrastructure into the national spatial planning; Shanghai proposes to appropriately increase the annual land supply, and at the same time speed up the arrangement and use of land transfer income, and issue a 50% reduction target for construction land to all districts in advance; Chongqing proposes to give priority to ensuring the supply of land for new infrastructure construction projects, actively and steadily undertake the authorization of national construction land approval, further improve and optimize the approval process, and promote the project to be put into production as soon as possible.

For Foshan, how to establish a project land security mechanism under the new land policy may become the focus of its new infrastructure layout. Not long ago, a batch of 100 billion investment projects in Foshan started, which shows its determination to escort the projects. Then, the long-term service quality of land supply is more important for Foshan to continuously introduce large and good projects. Whether it is to strengthen urban land reserve projects, optimize the land approval process, or explore flexible land supply methods, there is more than one idea of innovation and change.

Under the favorable land policy, another core proposition of Foshan's new infrastructure investment is how to innovate financing methods and solve the problem of where the money comes from. At present, many people in the industry believe that social capital can be accelerated to participate in new infrastructure in PPP (government and social capital cooperation) mode. This is an important idea.

Different from the traditional infrastructure, the new infrastructure is highly dependent on high-tech forces and requires the high participation of private market forces. PPP is considered as the most important mode for private capital and private enterprises to enter the public sector.

At present, the proportion of new infrastructure in domestic stock PPP project investment is still very low. This also means new financing space.

The essence of establishing PPP model is to relax the access of private capital. How to break the phenomenon of "glass door" and "spring door", broaden channels and remove restrictions for private enterprises to participate in infrastructure investment are all old problems in infrastructure investment. How to overcome the old problems in Foshan's new infrastructure investment? Implementing the negative list of market access and developing new financial products with new infrastructure can be the exploration direction.

In addition, there are still many "pits" to be wary of introducing PPP in Foshan.

The first is how to fill the lack of credit mechanism and return mechanism. How to form a benign investment return expectation, formulate specific risk prevention measures, clarify the relationship and boundary between franchising and PPP, and form a predictable liability for breach of contract. Without solving these problems first, it is difficult to mobilize investment vitality and tacit cooperation.

The second is to clarify the path of fiscal expenditure. Some experts said that there is no compliant financial expenditure subject and path, even if there is money, it can't be paid. Previously, the national policy stipulated that the operating subsidy expenditure of PPP projects should not be arranged from the government fund budget, which meant that the land sales income of local governments could not be used for the operating subsidy expenditure of PPP projects. So where does the PPP project subsidy come from and how to plan it reasonably? This is worthy of good planning in Foshan.

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What big moves have these cities made in strengthening the top-level design of new infrastructure?

At present, many cities have issued special plans for new infrastructure, and detailed the support measures for rewards and compensation.

"Ten Articles on Accelerating" New Infrastructure "in Huangpu District, Guangzhou Development Zone and Guangzhou High-tech Zone to Help the Development of Digital Economy" focuses on eight "new", namely, vigorously building new facilities, rewarding high-end new projects, cultivating new industrial ecology, creating new parks with characteristics, rejuvenating the manufacturing industry, focusing on developing new formats, creating new highlands for talents, and exploring new institutional changes.

This policy has many bright spots. For example, high-end new infrastructure projects and talents will be rewarded, and those who have won international awards and national science and technology awards in the field of digital economy will be rewarded according to 100% of the reward amount, with a maximum of 5 million yuan. In addition, talents in the digital economy will be rewarded, and the leading talents in the digital economy will be given a maximum of100000 yuan in entrepreneurial funding and a maximum of100000 yuan in investment incentives.

To build an industrial carrier, no more than five parks with digital economy characteristics will be selected according to the validity period of the policy, and subsidies will be given according to 50% of the actual operating expenses of the operation and management institutions, with a maximum of 2 million yuan per year for a single institution.

In terms of technical support for new infrastructure, the policy proposes to invest 654.38 billion yuan in three years to cultivate a number of leading enterprises in the fields of operating systems, databases, middleware, CPU chips, AI chips, streaming media software, network security software and hardware, build a complete information technology application innovation ecology, and support Guangzhou Development Zone to strive for the first national innovation base in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

While fully promoting 50 related industrial projects such as ZTE's 5G communication equipment and Fiberhome East China Headquarters Base, Nanjing actively develops a platform economy featuring modern agriculture in internet plus, manufacturing industry in internet plus, service industry in internet plus, entrepreneurial innovation in internet plus, government services in internet plus and social services in internet plus, with internet plus as the core, so as to ensure an average annual increase of more than 20% in online transactions on Internet platforms.

The Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the People's Government of Shandong Province on the Construction of Digital Infrastructure in Shandong Province is planned from the following aspects: the layout of intelligent terminal facilities with global awareness, the intelligent integration and upgrading of traditional infrastructure, and the construction of a safe and credible prevention and control facility system. This document proposes that there will be 40,000 new 5G base stations in Shandong in 2020, and by the end of 2022, the coverage of 5G networks in urban areas and key towns (streets) above the county level will be basically realized; By the end of 2020, there will be 200,000 cloud enterprises and 6,543,800 connected devices in the province.

In terms of investment, Shandong clearly needs to co-ordinate all kinds of special financial funds, strive for the investment of the National Telecom Universal Service Fund, guide the special funds for large-scale infrastructure construction in the province to tilt towards digital infrastructure, and encourage social capital investment.

In addition, the Shandong Construction Special Group strengthened the overall planning and overall promotion of digital infrastructure, established a coordinated implementation mechanism between provinces and cities, and promoted the landing of a number of key major hub projects.