source:Economic Daily agency editor in charge:Li Xuelei

From 2020 to 2022, 150 major water conservancy projects will be constructed, mainly including flood control and disaster reduction, optimal allocation of water resources, irrigation water saving and water supply, water ecological protection and restoration, and intelligent water conservancy, with a total investment of 1.29 trillion yuan. How to build a major project? Where does the money come from? The reporter of economic daily interviewed relevant experts——

The executive meeting of the State Council recently held focused on flood control and disaster reduction, optimal allocation of water resources, protection and restoration of water ecology, etc., and studied and deployed 150 major water conservancy projects construction arrangements this year and the follow-up. It was required to speed up the construction, promote the expansion of effective investment, and enhance the ability to prevent floods and droughts. With the national flood control entering the "seven down eight up" stage, the rainfall in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin is still on the high side. Heavy flood may occur in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, Haihe River, Songhua River and Huaihe River Basin. The situation of flood control is complex and severe, which highlights the great significance of water conservancy project construction.

As an important part of "two new and one heavy" construction, how to build water conservancy and other major projects? Where does the money come from? The reporter of economic daily interviewed relevant experts.

Make up the short board of water conservancy infrastructure

The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the construction of major water conservancy projects. In May 2014, the State Council required 172 major water conservancy projects to be constructed step by step. At present, 146 projects have been started, and the investment scale under construction exceeds 1 trillion yuan. A number of landmark projects, such as water diversion from Yangtze River to Huaihe River, Datengxia water control project on Xijiang River and chushandian reservoir on Huaihe River, have been started successively. 32 projects, including the first phase of the east middle line of the South-North Water Diversion Project, have been completed in succession, bringing into play significant economic, social and ecological benefits.

"More people, less water, and uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water resources are the basic water regime of our country. With population growth, economic development and the improvement of people's living standards, it is urgent to make up for the shortcomings of major water conservancy infrastructure Su Wei, Deputy Secretary General of the national development and Reform Commission, said. Therefore, while continuing to accelerate the construction of 172 major water conservancy projects, it is necessary to plan a number of new major water conservancy projects and implement them as soon as possible.

Ye Jianchun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of water resources, introduced that the 150 major water conservancy projects to be promoted from 2020 to 2022 mainly include flood control and disaster reduction, optimal allocation of water resources, irrigation water saving and water supply, water ecological protection and restoration, and intelligent water conservancy, with a total investment of 1.29 trillion yuan.

"The construction of these major water conservancy projects conforms to the actual needs of China's economic development, fundamentally ensures that this batch of infrastructure investment has important social benefits, and effectively avoids the sequelae of infrastructure investment." Liu Xiaoguang, a researcher at the national development and Strategy Research Institute of Renmin University of China, said that the optimized allocation of resources, irrigation water-saving and water supply, water ecological protection and restoration, and smart water conservancy also meet the inherent needs of China's high-quality economic development.

Wang Jun, chief economist of Zhongyuan bank, believes that for the current economic and social development of China, these major water conservancy projects have the important significance and multiple effects of reinforcing the weak points, strengthening the foundation, preventing risks, benefiting the people's livelihood, stabilizing employment and stable growth, and are the key direction of strengthening and supporting the positive financial policy in the second half of the year.

According to the introduction, the new water conservancy projects will increase the water supply capacity by about 2.9 billion cubic meters and increase the water supply capacity by about 2.9 billion cubic meters after the implementation of flood control projects.

Join forces with "two new"

This year, China will focus on supporting the construction of new infrastructure, new urbanization and "two new and one heavy" projects.

"Two new and one heavy" is an effective portfolio improvement scheme proposed in the government work report. As an important part of the "two new and one heavy" construction, strengthening the construction of major projects will help to boost short-term demand and promote economic recovery. " In Liu Xiaoguang's view, promoting the construction of a number of major projects plays a positive role in boosting market demand, stabilizing employment and ensuring people's livelihood.

Wang Jun said that at present, China is still in the middle and late stages of industrialization and urbanization, and the corresponding capital accumulation has not yet been completed, requiring economic development to maintain a high investment rate. In particular, in order to hedge against the macroeconomic downward pressure brought about by the epidemic, it is still necessary to invest in a certain scale of infrastructure and major construction projects. At the same time, increasing investment can not only drive technological innovation, accelerate technological progress, promote human capital accumulation and productivity, but also lay a solid foundation for long-term sustainable growth of consumption, which is conducive to maintaining stable economic operation.

Liu Xiaoguang believes that the construction of major projects will form a joint force with the "two new" construction, and give play to the synergistic effect of policies. For example, new infrastructure investment is oriented to new technologies, new business forms and new economic development direction in the future. However, the scale of investment is limited, and the short-term growth and employment pulling effect may not be as good as that of major project construction, and it is easy to produce the phenomenon of "small horse pulling big cart". If the new and old infrastructure investment is reasonably matched, the effect of "1 + 1 > 2" can be produced.

From the perspective of making up the weaknesses, "if the investment in the new infrastructure sector itself has the internal market power, under the effect of the market law and the industrial development law, the development of 5g, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and other fields is relatively fast and successful, and the government objectively needs to take advantage of the situation, then due to the huge investment scale and strong externality, the construction of major projects has a relatively large scale and strong externality We need more government leadership. " Liu Xiaoguang said.

Expand the market financing potential

According to statistics, the estimated total investment of 150 major water conservancy projects is about 1.29 trillion yuan, including 5 projects with more than 50 billion yuan, 4 projects with 30 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan, and 18 projects with 10 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan, which can drive direct and indirect investment of 6.6 trillion yuan, and increase 800000 jobs annually. At present, the national development and Reform Commission has issued a cumulative investment of 52.8 billion yuan in the central budget of major water conservancy projects in 2020 to support all localities to accelerate the construction of projects.

"The total investment scale of 150 major water conservancy projects is very large, so we must deepen the reform of investment and financing system and raise construction funds from multiple channels." Su Wei said that major water conservancy projects are generally characterized by strong public welfare, large investment scale and long return period, and their financing capacity is generally limited. However, some reservoir projects and water diversion and diversion projects have operational benefits such as power generation and water supply, and also have the potential and space to expand the scale of market-oriented financing through reform.

"After decades of development, the current major project construction, fundamentally speaking, is to scientifically demonstrate from the perspective of making up for weaknesses and supply side structural reform, so as to ensure that the project has social benefits matching the investment scale." Liu Xiaoguang said that it is necessary to optimize the project, not leave "sequelae", so that investment can continue to play an effective role.

Wang Jun believes that for major investment projects, such as transportation and water conservancy, with long investment period, low return rate and public goods attribute, government investment, especially central government investment, should be given priority to. If it is a project with obvious commercial value and stable cash flow, the principle of "market leading and government guiding" should be adopted, with social capital investment as the main body, and fair opportunities should be given to all market participants. The government mainly promotes the orderly operation of the market by formulating industry rules, facility standards, industrial planning and layout. (reporter Xiong Li)