shanghaijiadingnanxiangundergroundwwtp:pppmodelsolvesnimbyproblemschinaeconomicweekly-欧洲杯在线开户

     if you tell people that there will be a wwtp near their homes, many of them will voice opposition. but if the wwtp is built underground below a park and a science education center, people’s satisfaction will be greatly improved. this is the case with the shanghai jiading nanxiang wwtp. 

    on august 15, shi yaobin, vice minister of finance and head of the ministry of finance ppp leadership team, investigated the phase i construction site of shanghai jiading nanxiang wwtp, one of the first batch of ministry of finance demonstration ppp projects. later, he held a talk with shanghai municipal finance bureau, jiading district committee and government, and cweg, private participant of the project.  

    “i hope that all parties involved can work together to make the project a typical example. the ministry of finance will track the project throughout its period from construction to operation, helping the project play a guiding role,” vice minister shi yaobin said. 


      "the socialization reform of public goods and services is a weak point of the current reform, and also the most potential engine that improves the quality and efficiency of economic growth. then, how can we turn a weak point into a strong point? ” vice minister of finance shi yaobin asked this question in his the keynote speech at the 2nd china ppp financing forum in 2016. 
      the answer, according to shi yaobin, is innovation. ppp, as an innovative, market-oriented, socialized way to supply public goods and services, lowers barriers to entry and acts as a financial leverage at the same time. it encourages social innovation, stimulates fair competition in the private sector, increases the supply of optimized public services and goods, and improves the quality and efficiency of public services, continuously meeting the people""s growing demand for diverse public services. 
      given the sound finances of jiading, combining the ppp model with a promising project is really a kind of reform and innovation.  
      according to relevant statistics, in 2015, jiading district achieved an added value of rmb 175.61 billion, ranking third in all districts of shanghai, with a comparable growth of 7%, and an average annual growth rate of 9.2% during the “twelfth five-year plan” period. the total fiscal revenue was rmb 79.71 billion, of which the general public budget revenue was rmb 19.14 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%, which were twice and 2.3 times those of five years ago. in the first half of this year, jiading district continued to maintain a good momentum of development, with a general public budget income of rmb 14.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.6%. 
      in such an optimistic trend, it really needs courage to involve a private participant in a project with stable revenue based on the ppp model. information provided by jiading district to china economic weekly shows that the shanghai jiading nanxiang wwtp project covers an area of about 11.32 hectares. the project consists of two parts: wastewater treatment facility renovation and sludge treatment facility renovation. a new underground wwtp will be built under a park, a science education center, and a 35 kv substation. according to ndrc engineering feasibility reply (editor’s note: reply to the engineering feasibility study report), the total investment is rmb 1.322 billion. deep sludge dewatering equipment will be used in nanxiang wwtp, with a total capacity of 150 t/d. investment in phase i approved by ndrc is rmb 79 million. 
      ma chunlei, party secretary of the jiading district committee, said that jiading as a suburb of shanghai, aims to grow into a modern city featuring relative independent and mature functions, urban-rural development, an attractive innovation and entrepreneurial environment, a beautiful natural environment, a suitable living environment, a civilized and orderly society, and a reputation as famous as “nanxiang steamed juicy meat buns” (editor’s note: nanxiang town located in jiading district is a famous historical and cultural tourist attraction known for guyi garden and steamed juicy meat buns). among the above features, the key is relatively independent urban functions.  
     “our understanding of ‘remote’ is incomplete. ‘remote’ is not only a physical concept - it’s more of a concept reflecting functional maturation. if jiading is functional mature, other places are remote relative to us,”  ma chunlei said. mature functions require sound infrastructure, the construction of which, however, currently faces a striking conflict between short-term large-scale fiscal investment and long-term sustainable and stable growth. the ppp model can effectively ease this conflict. on the one hand, it reduces the short-term financial burden of the government, and on the other hand, it provides a relatively stable return on income for private investors. 
     zhang xi, head of jiading district, said that for the local government, the ppp model is not simply a financing model, but a management innovation and a fiscal system reform. it provides an innovative way of government procurement, and covers the entire project period from engineering outsourcing to project management. 
     “the investment of a ppp project is capped based on rigorous pre-project analysis, which means there is no need to worry about over spending, which promotes project progress,” zhang said. 
     song yijia, director of the shanghai municipal finance bureau, said that for shanghai, the main purpose of ppp projects is not to solve the funding problem, but to attract professional teams and technologies, thus improving the efficiency of public services through mechanism reform. 
     song said, “from the perspective of funding, the ppp model coordinates the relationship between short-term demand and long-term balance, which requires relevant departments to change their ideas. in the past, the construction and operation of public infrastructure projects were all funded by the government. it’s convenient, but less competitive. the involvement of the competition mechanism can ensure and promote the cooperation among various departments.” 
     after investigating the project, sun xiaoxia, director of the finance department of the ministry of finance, said, “i’d like to talk about two things. first, as one of the first batch ministry of finance demonstration ppp projects, jiading nanxiang wwtp was selected from 500-600 projects. the project is a standard example where the private participant acts as the operator, and the government as the supervisor and collaborator. two different mechanisms support each other, and professional fields are left to experts. second, officials in jiading district have a good understanding of ppps based on advanced concepts and ideas. also, they didn’t select a local enterprise, which shows their sense of fair play. therefore, the success of the project will not only set a good example, but also improve the government’s relevant management capacities.  
    on august 29, the general office of the shanghai municipal people""s government issued the implementation opinions on promoting the ppp model in shanghai, for the purpose of accelerating the transformation of government functions, encouraging and guiding private investment, and improving the supply capacity and efficiency of public goods and services. 

    underground wwtps solve the nimby problem  

    internationally, such project as wwtps and incineration plants are collectively known as nimby (not in my back yard) projects. these are necessary urban facilities, but their construction is opposed by local residents due to their negative effects on people’s health, environmental quality, and asset value. improper government responses may even lead to civil disorder. 
    cai xiaofei, deputy head of jiading district, told china economic weekly that when choosing a partner, their first consideration is its technological strength and operations management capacities. “i didn""t know that wwtps could be completely underground, with a nearly 100% waste recycling rate. we chose cweg because it’s technically one of the best underground wwtp builders.” 
    if the previous models like bot are version 1.0 solutions to financing problems, the ppp mode is a version 2.0 master solution,” cai said. 
    cai pointed out that during the process of urban development, there would be one or two functional state-owned enterprises (editor’s note: functional state-owned enterprises undertake strategic tasks and major special tasks assigned by the government, with the goal of achieving social benefits and incidentally economic benefits) in almost every district, and such enterprises are actually quasi-monopolistic. unavoidably, without competition, these quasi-monopolies will lower requirements on themselves. jiading also faces such a problem. 
    “so promoting the ppp model nationwide is like building a fair and just competition platform for enterprises with the ambition to expand business nationwide. the model helps control project costs, improve the government’s infrastructure management capacities, and ultimately, provide better services to the public,” cai said. 
    he added, “currently, a problem faced by us when choosing private participants is that we do not have enough choices, or ‘masters’. for jiading wwtp, all we wanted is a better infrastructure builder, operator and service provider. such an enterprise will stimulate other wwtps, giving them a sense of crisis, and a motive to improve technologies and management.” 
   “the public has a growing demand on environmental management. this is a kind of stress that motivates us. our goal is building the best wwtp in shanghai, with effluent meeting surface water quality standard class i a ,”  cai said. 
    he continued, “if there are similar 100% recycling nimby projects in the future, we can locate them closer to residential areas. nanxiang wwtp is a bit far from the residential area, which means lower service efficiency of the ground park.” 
    “in shenzhen, wwtps are built underground in residential areas. people’s lives are not affected, and the ground parks provide a free recreational space for the residents. we are confident that we can make it a successful model in shanghai, telling the public that nimby projects can be highlights instead of burdens in community life,” cai said. 
cweg: underground wwtp system is a proprietary intellectual property of cweg.
    cweg competed in the open tendering of shanghai jiading ppp project, and won the contract. as a leading comprehensive water environment management project investor and operator in china and even in the world, cweg had obtained six ministry of finance demonstration ppp projects as of september 1, 2016, including the guiyang nanming river water environment management project, and shanghai jiading nanxiang underground wwtp project in the first batch of ministry of finance demonstration projects, and the sichuan guang""an “ clean water action” regional water environment management project, chengdu tianfu district wwtp & eco-friendly science city project, dali erhai lake water environment management project, and beijing-tianjin-hebei integration: the north canal watershed management project in the second batch of ministry of finance demonstration projects. 
    cweg chairman hou feng told china economic weekly that the ppp model not only provides a way to attract funds, but more importantly, a way to introduce advanced concepts and ideas. in water environment management, wwtps and recycled water plants play an important role in controlling exogenous pollution. however, water environment management requires more than large-scale construction of these plants. limited by land supply, many cities choose to build large plants in the lower reaches, which is actually unscientific and economical. effluent optimization is the key.  
    according to hou, shanghai jiading nanxiang underground wwtp adopts cweg’s fifth generation of patented underground wwtp system with the advantages of “eco-friendliness, low land occupation and high resource utilization”. the system comprehensively upgrades traditional wwtps by occupying one third of the area of a traditional wwtp, saving pipe network costs, and turning the ground area into an urban eco-complex. this innovative system will surely be popularized in the wastewater treatment of densely populated urban areas.  
   “after the completion of the project, there will be an open ecological park above the wwtp which can hardly be noticed. it will greatly improve the social, economic and environmental values of the surrounding area, turning wwtps from negative assets to positive assets,”  hou feng said. 

    an eco-recreational space: shanghai jiading nanxiang wwtp landscaping
 
    a syndicated loan put together by china development bank is granted to spread financing risk.

   cweg is a professional water environment management project investment company under citicpe. as a subsidiary of citic, citicpe is the largest equity fund in china, with over rmb 80 billion assets under management. it is the largest fund management company in china and the third largest in asia, with 30 listed subsidiaries. 
   citic general manager wang jiong said at the 2nd china ppp financing forum that citic, as the first chinese company that uses the ppp model to promote urbanization and serve the “belt & road” strategy, has participated in a number domestically and internationally influential ppp projects, such as the shanghai third bridges and two tunnels project, 2008 olympic game’s main stadium bird""s nest, algeria east-west highway, angola kk new zone. 
   citicpe president tian yu told china economic weekly that over the past 25 years, citic had carried out many ppp projects at home and abroad, including eight ministry of finance demonstration ppp projects, with a total investment of hundreds of billions of yuan. “some of cweg’s demonstration projects are located in financially strong cities like shanghai and beijing. governments of these cities care more about the private participants’ strength in technology and management, rather than finances. all of cweg’s ppp projects are successful. 
   from the perspective of financing, citic is a builder and also an investor itself. we support all ministry of finance demonstration ppp projects,” tian yu said. 
   according to information provided by cweg, shanghai jiading nanxiang underground wwtp totally costs rmb 1.4 billion. aside from the part funded by cweg, about rmb 900 million is still needed. to solve the problem, china development bank, bank of communications and china construction bank shanghai branch jointly provided a 15-year syndicated loan with an interest rate 10% lower than the benchmark interest rate of the people""s bank of china. the loan is pledged by the right to charge after the completion of the project.  
   cweg chairman hou feng said that the financing of the project is innovative in two aspects. first, the project is the only ministry of finance demonstration ppp project in shanghai. in the past, shanghai""s municipal infrastructure construction was mainly done by the government. private participation in this project has, on the one hand, broadened the financing channel, and on the one hand, further ensured project quality through measures such as the government pays for services. second, the project is led by the private participant who bears all financing risks that may occur during construction. after the project comes into service, the private participant operates as required, and the government pays for services. 
   "ppp-based financing risk spreading requires the private participant to provide services as required, and also constrains the government""s financial payment behavior, which is of great help to the rational design, smooth construction and effective operation of the project,” hou feng said. 
source link:http://www.ceweekly.cn/2016/0919/164565.shtml