(Economic Observation) China Speeds Up Urban Renovation of Old Residential Quarters and Establishes Multi-Party Shared Mechanism
China News Agency, Beijing, July 20th, Title: China Speeds Up the Transformation of Old Residential Quarters and Establishes Multi-party Sharing Mechanisms
China News Agency reporter Pang Wuji
What should we do to transform old urban communities in China? How to fully mobilize the participation of people and social forces? How to raise funds for renovation? These key questions now have answers.
The General Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China announced on the 20th the "Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Renovation of Old Urban Communities", which clarifies the objectives, targets, and support policies for the renovation of old urban communities. Opinions suggest that China will comprehensively promote the transformation of old urban communities and promote the transformation of urban renewal and development and construction methods.
Transformation speed
In recent years, the "acceleration key" has been pressed for the renovation of old communities. At the end of 2017, 15 cities such as Qinhuangdao and Zhangjiakou launched a one-year pilot project for the transformation of old urban communities. In June 2019, the Executive Meeting of the State Council deployed to promote the transformation of old communities. In the next two months, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with 21 departmental units, went into nearly 100 cities and counties to investigate more than 200 old urban communities. In October last year, deepening pilot exploration was carried out in 8 cities including Shandong, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.
This year's government work report puts forward that 39,000 new towns have been renovated. According to the official's previous disclosure, this involved nearly 7 million residents, a double that of last year.
Until this opinion was issued, China proposed that by the end of the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period (end of 2025), combined with the actual conditions of various regions, China will strive to basically complete the task of rebuilding old towns that need to be rebuilt before the end of 2000.
What are the key transformation objects? These comments made it clear that urban residential quarters (including single residential buildings) with an early age, lack of maintenance and repair, imperfect municipal supporting facilities, imperfect social service facilities, and strong residents’ willingness to transform should be reformed in 2000. Old community built before the end of the year. According to official estimates, this part of the key transformation target is about 3 billion square meters.
How to change these communities? Liu Lifeng, deputy director of the Urban Construction Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said in the interpretation of the comments that the transformation is specifically divided into basic categories (mainly including the upgrading of municipal supporting infrastructure such as water and gas), and perfect categories (including the installation of elevators and residential areas Energy-saving renovation of internal buildings, etc.) and promotion (including supporting construction of various public service facilities such as old-age care, childcare, health and epidemic prevention, food assistance, housekeeping and cleaning).
This classification is also closely related to the follow-up "Who will pay" question. For example, the basic category is dominated by government investment, and the central government provides financial subsidies, with key support; the reform category is partially funded by beneficiaries and government subsidies; the upgrade category can bring some benefits, and it is necessary to comprehensively calculate government subsidy funds, social power investment and Proportion of beneficiaries’ capital contribution, etc.
Who pays the money?
The old urban communities in China that need to be renovated involve hundreds of millions of residents, with a large amount and a wide range of situations. The situation is different, and it is unsustainable to rely on government funding alone.
In this regard, the opinion proposes to establish a rational sharing mechanism between the government, residents and social forces for rebuilding funds.
Liu Lifeng pointed out that there are four main contents:
One is to reasonably implement the responsibilities of residents for funding. In accordance with the principle of who benefits and who contributes, it actively promotes residents’ participation in the transformation. Residents' capital contribution responsibilities can be implemented through direct investment, use (additional construction, renewal) of residential special maintenance funds, and transfer of community public revenue. For example, in the comprehensive environmental improvement project of an old community in Pujiang County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, residents self-raised 5.4 million yuan, with a contribution rate of 25%.
The second is to increase government support. Reconstruction of old residential areas in cities and towns into affordable housing projects, the central government will provide financial subsidies. All kinds of funds related to residential communities should be coordinated for the transformation of old urban communities to improve the efficiency of fund utilization. Support local governments to raise funds for reform by issuing local government special bonds.
The third is to continuously improve the strength and quality of financial services. Financial institutions have stepped up innovation in products and services, and provided credit support to enterprises and projects that have implemented the transformation of old urban communities under the premise of controllable risks and business sustainability.
A few days ago, China Development Bank and Jilin provinces and 5 other provinces, China Construction Bank and Chongqing and 9 other cities respectively signed strategic cooperation agreements to support market forces to participate in the transformation of old urban communities. In the next five years, CDB and CCB will provide 436 billion yuan of loans to 5 provinces and 9 cities to support the transformation of old urban communities.
The fourth is to promote the participation of social forces. Through government procurement, paid use of new facilities, and implementation of asset rights and interests, it will attract various types of professional institutions and other social forces to invest in the design, transformation, and operation of various facilities that need to be transformed. Implement tax and fee reduction and exemption policies. (Finish)