The Ministry of Construction plans to gather together all municipal engineering projects in China and hold an investment talk at the start of August this year, Beijing Youth Daily reported, quoting the words of a ministry official.
The move is seen to break a monopoly in the municipal engineering market, following on the telecom, power and civil aviation sectors.
“Current municipal facilities can’t meet people’s rising demands, while existing public facilities perform with poor efficiency. Lots of money is still needed for new projects, but there are few channels to raise funds. With the acceleration of urbanization, there’s an urgent need to raise capital and improve the efficiency of municipal facilities,” said Li Dongxu, director of the Urban Construction Department under the Ministry of Construction.
Li made the remarks in a conference on the national municipal engineering market.
The measures to open up the municipal engineering market include encouraging private capital and foreign capital to participate in the construction of municipal projects through sole-ownership, joint venture or cooperation and accordingly, form multiple investment structures; allowing enterprises in different regions and industries to manage municipal engineering enterprises; selecting enterprises through public auction and franchise, to operate water supply, heating, public transportation, sewage and garbage disposal.
These would also include choosing enterprises to maintain roads, landscape engineering, sanitation, and establish a comprehensive contract management system; split project designing, construction and supervision, equipment manufacture and supply from core businesses, and choose related enterprises to manage them through public auction.
Industry insiders say that urban infrastructural construction and management projects in some developed regions will be hotly pursued by both domestic and overseas investors.
(China.org.cn by Tang Fuchun, April 24, 2003)
