As the main force of fixed asset investment, the activity of private investment is regarded as a barometer of economic vitality, and its growth rate changes have attracted much attention from all parties. Since last year, the growth rate of private investment has been running at a low level. In the first five months of this year, national fixed asset investment increased by 4% year-on-year, while private investment fell by 0.1%. Recently, various localities have taken measures to stimulate the vitality of private investment with market methods and reform measures.
Emerging fields have great potential
"Private investment has a significant impact on economic growth, plays an important role in stabilizing growth, stabilizing employment, and promoting economic transformation and upgrading, and is an indispensable link for stabilizing economic growth." Li Zhiqi, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce and chairman of the Revitalization International Think Tank, said.
The mainland has always attached great importance to private investment, continuously optimized the institutional environment, and continuously liberalized the investment field. Since the establishment of private investment statistics in 2012, the proportion of private investment in the overall investment has remained above 55% for a long time.
Li Zhiqi believes that one of the important reasons for the recent decline in the growth rate of private investment is that uncertainties such as the epidemic have hit the private economy with weak scale and strength hard.
Xu Zewei, chairman of 91 Technology Group, observed that the current economic operation is recovering well, but the endogenous power is not strong, and the demand is still insufficient, so the investment direction of private enterprises is not clear, the investment willingness is not strong, and the investment momentum is insufficient.
In addition, problems such as financing difficulties and expensive financing, which affect the growth of private investment for a long time, have not been effectively solved. Fierce market competition, external environmental risks, and pressure of transformation and upgrading have also hindered the development of private investment.
It is worth noting that private investment in the mainland is mainly concentrated in manufacturing, real estate and service industries. In recent years, under the dual factors of policy guidance and enterprise transformation, private investment has shifted to high value-added fields, and high-end manufacturing, modern service industry, digital economy and other fields have become hot spots for private investment.
Emerging fields have a lot of upfront investment, a long return period, and high requirements for the stability of the investment environment. Li Zhiqi suggested that all localities can study and launch the "Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Private Enterprises to Invest", guide private capital to accelerate their entry into high-precision industries, infrastructure construction and other major projects in the form of a positive list, strengthen the introduction and landing of new track projects, and better play the key role of investment in industrial and economic development.
"Our main investment directions include new materials, industrial software, Internet of Things and so on." Xu Zewei introduced that 91 Technology Group mainly adopts an investment strategy that follows the trend, conforms to national guidelines and policies, and is committed to promoting the development of the real economy.
Expand channels to boost confidence
Continuously improving the market environment and increasing support for private enterprises is conducive to the stabilization and recovery of private investment.
Recently, many places have launched powerful measures to enhance the confidence and vitality of private enterprises' investment. For example, the "Several Policies and Measures for Shanghai to Increase Support for the Development of Private Investment" has introduced 20 policies in terms of creating a fair market access environment, optimizing the private investment environment, improving private investment financing services, and guiding the high-quality development of private investment.
"Shanghai has clearly identified seven major areas to encourage private enterprises to enter, and through specific policies to break some hidden barriers and potential unfair competition problems that existed in the past." Li Zhiqi said. For example, in terms of encouraging private capital to invest in new infrastructure, it is not only proposed to "support private enterprises to widely participate in the construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure such as data and computing power", but also "support universities, scientific research institutions, and state-owned enterprises to use data storage and computing power resources invested by private enterprises through government procurement, leasing, etc.", which will effectively solve the problem of "no one dares to use it" faced by private capital investment in new infrastructure in the past, and eliminate the worries of private capital.
Beijing has publicly promoted 149 projects to attract private capital participation, which has attracted the attention of many private entrepreneurs. Xu Zewei believes that in these projects, the ways in which social capital can participate are very flexible, including equity investment, debt investment, cooperative operation and participation in construction, which is more friendly to small and micro enterprises with less abundant funds.
"A series of measures are accurate and effective, focusing on breaking down the institutional obstacles that restrict the development of private investment, making up for the shortcomings of supporting policies for investment and financing, and forming effective institutional arrangements for expanding private investment and encouraging long-term investment." Luo Zhenli, a researcher at the School of Social Sciences of Tsinghua University, said that first, focusing on the intrinsic requirements of improving investment efficiency, optimizing investment structure, and enhancing investment stamina, the policies introduced focus on open source, smoothing and expanding channels for private investment; The second is to greatly relax the access restrictions of the public sector of private investment, optimize the service supply structure and improve the efficiency of private investment allocation.
"In the future, these changes cannot only stop at the level of government policies, but should be confirmed and solidified in the form of legislation." Li Zhiqi said.
The incentive environment needs to be optimized
With the rapid recovery of the tourism industry, 6-person travel network has increased investment in talent, marketing and destination investment this year. Jia Jianqiang, founder and CEO of the company, said that although the current market enthusiasm for new investment is not high, there must be huge room for growth in the future.
Generally speaking, the mainland's investment demand potential is still huge, the external conditions for private investment are improving, and the starting line of various types of capital is getting closer and closer. However, in interviews, some entrepreneurs said that they still face hidden barriers such as "openly and secretly, and not letting go", fewer projects with good returns, and insufficient channels for participating in major projects.
"Some projects put forward qualification requirements that obviously exceed the actual needs, which will exclude a considerable number of private enterprises." Xu Zewei said that to support private investment in major projects, private enterprises should be treated equally in the design, construction, supply of raw materials, facilities and equipment for major projects.
In the process of encouraging and attracting private investment projects, there have been phenomena such as excessive promises and "empty promises", which also discouraged the enthusiasm of private investment. Luo Zhenli believes that the development of private capital in mainland China is still immature, and it is necessary for policymakers to communicate with enterprises in depth, strengthen the transparency and predictability of policies, and help private capital form stable and good expectations.
Luo Zhenli suggested that high-quality private investment projects should be encouraged to issue REITs in the infrastructure sector, private capital should be encouraged to participate in the revitalization of state-owned stock assets through PPP and other means, and private enterprises should be supported to revitalize assets through property rights transactions, mergers and reorganizations.
Li Zhiqi suggested that state-owned enterprises should be encouraged to open up cooperation in key areas to enterprises of other ownership systems, promote state-owned enterprises and more capable and specialized private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises to meet the needs at multiple levels such as research and development, production, marketing, and services, and promote the integration and innovation and common development of large and small enterprises.
"All localities and departments should increase assistance to large-scale private enterprises with strong foundation, leadership, and driving force, pay close attention to the difficulties and problems in the current market, cost, recruitment, and capital that enterprises currently reflect, and implement detailed relief and assistance policies." Li Zhiqi said. (Reporter Zeng Shiyang)
Source: Economic Daily