"Guizhou is a large province of forestry resources, and the huge contrast with its growth rate is the lag in the development of the forestry industry." Whether it is from the perspective of industrial development or derivative product development, or market supply and demand requirements, it is imperative to establish a Forest Rights Trading Center in Guizhou Province and a provincial forestry guarantee company. On January 20, just after meeting with reporters, the provincial CPPCC member and the chairman of Guizhou Mintou Group went straight to the subject and talked about his proposal.
Member Rao Keliang was interviewed by a reporter from the Guizhou CPPCC Daily
As a new member and new face of the Fifth Session of the Twelfth CPPCC Provincial Committee, Rao Keliang has been deeply engaged in the agriculture and forestry industry for many years, and submitted the "Proposal on the Establishment of Guizhou Forest Rights Trading Center and the Provincial Forestry Guarantee Company to Promote the Development of forestry Industry in Our Province" during the conference. He pointed out that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Guizhou has completed a total of 29.88 million mu of afforestation, and the forest coverage rate has increased from 50% in 2015 to 61.51% in 2020, with the average annual growth rate ranking first in the country. The huge contrast with this growth rate is the lag in the development of Guizhou's forestry industry, which is mainly reflected in the fact that the forest quality is not high and the ecological benefits have not been fully utilized; the forestry industry is underdeveloped and the economic benefits need to be improved urgently; the supply structure is unreasonable, the tree species are single, and the forest products are homogenized; forestry investment depends on financial funds, social investment is not active; and forest rights transactions are still blank.
Rao Keliang analyzed that the main crux of the problem is that it is affected by various factors such as the long forestry production cycle, the great influence of natural factors, the overall capital investment is insufficient, the financing cost is high, the financial policy is not matched, the information is not transparent, the mortgage is insufficient, and the development of forest insurance is slow.
"Compared with provinces and regions with similar forest land conditions, the total forestry output value of our province is at the middle and lower reaches of the level, and the average output value of the forest economy per mu is only 31%, 41% and 48% of Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, respectively." Rao Keliang further analyzed and pointed out that Guizhou's forestry industry foundation is weak, the efficiency of forest resources development and utilization is not high, there is still a big gap between the output value per unit area and developed provinces, the level of deep processing of forest products is low, the added value of products is not high, the market main body is not strong, the brand effect is low, the market competitiveness is weak, and the input mechanism and interest linkage mechanism are not perfect. The unit area of timber forests is only 75% of the national average. Of the area of forest land under the forest economic utilization, extensive use accounts for more than 50%, and forest resources are not efficiently utilized. In 2020, the forest land area in Guizhou Province is 1.12 times that of Fujian, while the total output value of forestry is only 51% of Fujian, and the rich resource endowment does not match the contribution rate of forestry to the economy and society.
At the same time, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the forestry investment structure of Guizhou Province accounted for 51.22% of fiscal funds, bank loans (mainly policy banks) accounted for 26.42%, and other funds, including foreign capital, accounted for 22.36%. Of the 32.013 billion yuan of forestry investment completed in the province in 2020, the central financial funds were 7.759 billion yuan, the provincial financial funds were 3.906 billion yuan, accounting for 38.61% of the financial funds, and the financing and lending of the national reserve forest project was 20.348 billion yuan, accounting for 67.35%. Social investment is extremely inactive.
Rao Keliang introduced that at present, 27 provinces in the country have set up 1,065 forest rights trading service institutions at the county level and above. For example, China Forestry, Southern Forestry, East China Forestry, Jiangnan Forestry, Chongqing Fuling Forestry, these six major property rights exchanges have shown good economic and social benefits. Guizhou is still blank in this regard.
To this end, Rao Keliang put forward suggestions: with finance as the support, the implementation of "industrial financialization", the establishment of the Guizhou Forest Rights Trading Center and the Provincial Forestry Guarantee Company, and further complete the construction of the intermediary service system. He pointed out that by activating the financial attributes of forestry element assets (including forest rights, carbon trading rights, living standing wood, timber, etc.), establishing trading rules, and building a trading platform, so that forestry assets can be quantified, circulatable and realizable, it is conducive to introducing financial and social capital to invest in the forestry industry, which is conducive to making the forestry economy in Guizhou alive, stronger and bigger. By building a forest rights trading center with a clear organizational structure, standardized management system, advanced trading mode, technical information linkage, and controllable transaction risks, and providing assessment, transaction, change registration, financing, information inquiry, etc. for forest rights assets, Guizhou's forestry assets will be able to integrate with the domestic and international markets, and achieve a good conversion of forestry assets into funds. The establishment of the Guizhou Forestry Guarantee Company under the supervision of the Forestry Department will quickly promote the close cooperation between banks and forestry through the "532" risk sharing model.