Construction of 27 major water conservancy projects started this year

Qiao Yong, vice minister of water resources, said at a news conference held by the State Information Office yesterday that China's water conservancy investment will continue to tilt towards the construction of major water conservancy projects this year, accounting for about 45 percent of the total water conservancy investment. According to reports, 27 new major water conservancy projects are planned to start this year, all of which have been set up, and nearly half of them are in the western region.

Since last year, the construction of major water conservancy projects in China has been speeded up in an all-round way. in 2014, 17 major water conservancy projects, including Datengxia on the Xijiang River, Shandian on the Huaihe River, Jiayan in Guizhou, and Xizang Laluo in Guizhou, have been started, and 57 major water conservancy projects are under construction.

At present, China's water conservancy investment is mainly government investment, and the degree of social capital participation is low. Jiao Yong said that the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Water Resources have jointly issued the "implementation opinions on encouraging and guiding Social Capital to participate in the Construction and Operation of Major Water Conservancy projects" to launch a number of major water conservancy projects that attract social capital investment. mobilize the enthusiasm of social capital to participate in the construction and management of water conservancy projects.

"it is necessary to leverage through financial funds to make more social capital enter the water conservancy industry. First of all, for public welfare-based water conservancy projects, the government should add a certain amount of capital. For every major project, where there is a market return, it is necessary to measure the rate of return. If the rate of return is lower than the interest rate of long-term treasury bonds, we must make the rate of return higher than the interest rate of treasury bonds by means of financial injection of capital. in this way, enterprises have a certain enthusiasm to invest in water conservancy. " Jiao Yong said.

"Social capital is more concerned about water prices, electricity prices, and so on. We now consider every major water conservancy project, especially when considering the price of source water, we should give more full consideration to how to set prices, including project costs, environmental protection costs, and so on. If the price is raised, it will be more attractive to the enterprise investment. " Qiao Yong revealed that this year, China will select a number of projects to carry out relevant pilot demonstration work.

Chen Mingzhong, director of the Water Resources Department of the Ministry of Water Resources, said at a news conference that on the basis of summing up the experience in the assessment of the strictest water resources management system last year, the assessment work this year has been launched and the scope of the assessment will be further expanded to cover 31 provinces across the country. This year's assessment procedures will be broader and stricter than last year, and the index weight quantified by the "three red lines" has been increased to 40% in the design of the index system. In terms of the contents of the assessment, it has also added the follow-up to the problems existing in last year's assessment.