Summary: As a demonstration project of the "Belt and Road", the China-Laos Railway has been open for more than two years. According to the data, in 2023, the cumulative import and export freight volume of Kunming Customs will reach 4.2177 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 94.91%. The China-Laos Railway has become a golden channel connecting the inside and outside, radiating the surrounding areas, and helping each other in both directions. However, out of the denigration of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, there is no shortage of foreign media to smear the China-Laos railway, especially the corrupt political environment in Southeast Asia, which makes it difficult for the railway to stand alone from the "local national conditions". Zhang Yiling, the author of this article and a research assistant at the Belt and Road Institute of Beijing Normal University, found that in order to resolve the risk of corruption, the relevant leaders of China and Laos carried out a detailed top-level design at the early stage of the project construction, carefully planned the clean construction of the China-Laos Railway, and truly made the China-Laos Railway a high-quality project of the two countries.
[Text/ Zhang Yiling]
Corruption is a cancer in human society, and its existence can undermine democracy and the rule of law, undermine the mechanism of market operation, and increase inequality and injustice. The United Nations Convention against Corruption noted that corruption was an evil phenomenon in all countries, but that in developing countries its effects were even more devastating, as a major factor in economic underperformance and a major obstacle to poverty reduction and development, as well as a hindrance to foreign investment and foreign aid.
According to the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International in 2022, among the countries along the Belt and Road, the average score of the 61 countries available for data is only 39.75 points, which is 3.22 points lower than the global average, which means that the overall level of corruption in the countries along the Belt and Road is higher than the global average. Among the extremely corrupt countries with a score of less than 25, 10 countries along the "Belt and Road" are included.
The Belt and Road Initiative involves a large number of projects and a huge amount of funds. In the early days of the Belt and Road Initiative, due to the immaturity of various systems and mechanisms, corruption occurred from time to time in the process of project construction, which became a firepower gathering point for the international community. The U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations said the Belt and Road Initiative was corrupt when voting on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution on Afghanistan.
But what is even more frightening is that corruption can lead to the failure of projects, undoing a lot of investment and hard work. For example, the famous Mexico City-Querétaro high-speed rail project, with a total cost of 4.4 billion US dollars, was the first foreign project to win the bid for the mainland high-speed railway, but the bid was passively withdrawn due to the accusation of corruption in the bidding process by the opposition party in Mexico, which caused very large economic losses and caused the share price of the contractor China Railway Construction to plummet that year.
Mexican government officials said on January 30, 2015 that the Mexican government decided to suspend the high-speed rail project from the capital Mexico City to Querétaro due to the sharp drop in government revenue due to the sharp drop in international oil prices (Source: CCTV)
The Belt and Road Initiative is to promote the common development and prosperity of the co-built countries and benefit the people of the co-built countries.
On May 14, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that "international anti-corruption cooperation should be strengthened to make the Belt and Road a clean road". In April 2019, at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, General Secretary Xi Jinping once again proposed to "insist that all cooperation operate under the sun and jointly fight corruption with a zero-tolerance attitude". The two appeals demonstrate that China attaches great importance to the issue of corruption in the Belt and Road Initiative, its position of zero tolerance for corruption in the Belt and Road Initiative, and its determination to combat corruption in the Belt and Road Initiative.
The China-Laos Railway is a high-quality project of the "Belt and Road" signed by China and Laos, with a total length of 1,035 kilometers, consisting of two sections of the Ngoc Mo Railway in China and the Mo Wan Railway in Laos, with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour, which is the first modern railway in Laos and an important part of the middle line of the Pan-Asian Railway network.
The completion and opening of the China-Laos Railway can change Laos' geographical and transportation disadvantages, reduce the cost of foreign trade, and make it change from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country", so that it can be more deeply integrated into the regional industrial chain and supply chain system. According to a 2020 World Bank report, the cost of transportation between Vientiane and Kunming will be reduced by 40 to 50 percent through the Belt and Road network, 3.9 million tonnes of transit trade will be carried through Laos annually by 2030, and the China-Laos railway will increase total Laos' total income by 21 percent in the long run.
For China, the China-Laos Railway is a landmark project of the "Belt and Road" infrastructure interconnection, which will greatly promote the economic development of countries along the route and strengthen economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN countries. Therefore, no matter from any point of view, the China-Laos railway project is of great strategic significance.
The China-Laos Railway Project adopts the BOT model, and the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., a joint venture between China and Laos, is responsible for the construction, operation and handover. The franchise period is 50+25 years, with a total budget of 37.425 billion yuan, of which the registered capital of Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. is 15 billion yuan, which is funded by four shareholders: Mowan Railway Co., Ltd., Lao National Railway Company, Beijing Yukun Investment Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Investment Group Co., Ltd., and the remaining 22.4 billion yuan is provided by the Export-Import Bank of China for project financing. 【1】
As such a huge strategic infrastructure construction project, the failure of the construction of the China-Laos railway will cause very serious economic losses and very bad impacts, and corruption is the key risk facing the project. The China-Laos railway project is far away from the domestic headquarters, which is difficult to effectively supervise, and because of the many differences in the cultural Xi, legal system and business environment between Laos and China, many aspects of the project have loopholes. In addition, the problem of corruption in Laos has always been very serious, ranking outside the 100 for many years, and corruption has infiltrated all walks of life, especially in the fields of government infrastructure construction, land development, and bidding. According to a 2016 report by the Lao Ministry of Finance, 785.8 billion kip (about 660 million yuan) was invested in 60 so-called "ghost projects" in Laos, where the budget has been drawn but the projects do not actually exist.
In order to resolve the risk of corruption and make the China-Laos Railway truly a high-quality project that benefits the people of the two countries, the relevant leaders of China and Laos carried out a detailed top-level design at the early stage of the project construction and carefully planned the clean construction of the China-Laos Railway.
On December 25, 2016, the construction of the China-Laos Railway officially started. In June 2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection convened relevant departments and participating enterprises to conduct a survey on the integrity construction of the China-Laos Railway. In September of the same year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the World Bank jointly held a seminar on strengthening international cooperation and building a clean road. In December 2017, the launching ceremony of the construction of the "Road to Integrity" of the China-Laos Railway was held at the entrance of the Friendship Tunnel of the China-Laos Railway, witnessed by more than 200 people, including the discipline inspection and supervision departments of the two parties and the two countries, the heads of enterprises and the builders, and the representatives of the participating enterprises signed the "Letter of Commitment to Integrity" on the spot.
The launching ceremony of the construction of the "Road to Integrity" (Source: Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission)
In April 2019, the National Supervision Commission of the People's Republic of China and the General Supervision Office of the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation, which specifically included the integrity construction of the China-Laos Railway.
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation (Source: Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission)
And the construction of integrity into the "Guiding Opinions on the Construction of Quality Projects", formulate and improve the "Work Plan for Integrity Construction", and take it as one of the eight goals of the construction of "Quality Projects".
"Guiding Opinions on the Construction of High-quality Projects" (Source: Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission)
A series of top-level designs are enough to reflect the importance that the relevant leaders of the two countries attach to the clean construction of the China-Laos railway project, but these alone are not enough to clean up the environment that breeds corruption and cut off the germ of corruption.
Corruption is essentially a human act, the result of the interaction of three aspects: individual psychological factors, formal institutions and informal institutions. The formal system includes the system of guarantees such as wages and benefits, the system of incentives such as appraisal and promotion, and the system of power and the legal system that stipulate the operation and implementation of power. The guarantee system and incentive system affect the degree to which people's various needs are satisfied, the power system determines whether those in power have the convenience to abuse power, and the legal system affects the judgment of those in power on the risks and consequences of their actions. Informal institutions include culture, Xi, ideology, social psychology, etc., which play a decisive role in individual psychology.
The China-Laos Railway project team has established a very detailed formal and informal system for the whole process of project implementation, and has firmly focused on every link that can generate corruption.
1. Reduce the willingness to corrupt
The basic motivation for corrupt behavior is the need for material, power, money, status, etc. Second, cultural, social psychology, Xi and external bad stimuli will lead individuals to have more than reasonable needs for material, power, money, and status, or to produce a sense of superiority, a sense of privilege and other vanity. Finally, if the needs of individuals are not basically met by organizations and formal systems, they are dissatisfied with the existing conditions after comparison, feel unfair, and think that the rewards do not match their efforts, which will also lead to psychological imbalance and cognitive dissonance. [2] The project team mainly reduces the willingness of party members, cadres and employees to be corrupt from the following two aspects:
The first is education and cultural construction. Helping all employees establish a sense of integrity is the first wall for the China-Laos Railway to prevent integrity risks.
In terms of honesty education, the Second Bureau of China Railway has strengthened the identity of "Chinese", "party cadres" and "China Railway people" in the form of honest party courses and honest education books, so that the majority of party members and cadres will be consciously honest and honest, and safeguard the image of the enterprise and the motherland. [3] As of June 22, 2020, the participating units of the China-Laos Railway have held a total of 236 party classes, with 5,291 people participating, and 239 integrity classes, with 8,955 people participating. [4] China Railway International Corporation conducts integrity reminders for dispatched personnel before going abroad, reports on integrity after returning to China, and conducts integrity talks at different levels once every six months, and timely carries out integrity reminders and warning education at important nodes such as holidays, credit evaluation, flat push inspections, bidding and bidding, and quarterly work inspections. [5] Discipline is a key part of education. China Railway has carried out a number of centralized trainings on political discipline, organizational discipline, foreign affairs discipline, life discipline and other aspects.
In addition, the responsibilities of each participant for integrity construction should be clarified through agreements and letters of responsibility. China Railway has carried out a comprehensive investigation of integrity risk points, investigated more than 220 risk points, formulated more than 50 corresponding prevention and control measures, clarified the persons responsible for prevention and control, and formulated the "Division of Labor of the Responsibility System for the Construction of Party Style and Clean Government of the Leading Group"; all participating units signed 11 "Integrity Construction Responsibility Letters" with the owners, 541 "Integrity Agreements" signed by all branches and all collaborative teams, and a total of 979 Party members, leading cadres and key positions signed the "Integrity Commitment Letter" He said that he would strictly abide by the laws and regulations of China and Laos on investment, engineering construction, environmental protection, land management, accounting, taxation and other laws, and resolutely put an end to all bribery, embezzlement and corruption. In addition, there are also family support activities. China Railway held more than 10 seminars on "Building a Clean Family Style and Building a Harmonious Family", with more than 150 people participating. 【6】
In terms of the construction of integrity culture, China Railway has actively carried out the "five in" activities of integrity culture, insisted on sharing a integrity story every week, and promoted the integrity culture to "enter the team, the project, the post, the collaborative team, and the family", and also made the integrity culture tangible, and set up the integrity culture base, the integrity culture corridor, and the "integrity road" education room at the project site, so that employees can improve their awareness of integrity in the ears and eyes.
The second is to ensure that the reasonable needs of party members, cadres and employees are met, and avoid their negative perception of being treated unfairly.
Relatively superior salary and benefits are a good incentive mechanism, which can mobilize employees' personal morality to a greater extent and make them self-restraint, and self-restraint often has a better effect than external constraints. China Railway, the main builder of the China-Laos Railway, has provided generous treatment and comprehensive and thoughtful care for all employees involved in the construction of the China-Laos Railway. First of all, the salary standards of the employees of the participating units of the China-Laos Railway are generally higher than the domestic standards, and all units have also built basketball courts, gymnasiums, recreation rooms, psychological stations, staff libraries and other cultural, sports and entertainment facilities in the project site and construction camp according to local conditions, which has increased the happiness of employees' lives, and carried out condolence activities on traditional Chinese festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival, so that employees feel warm and caring. Secondly, China Railway established family information files for overseas employees, sent condolences to employees' families during traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, and also sent peace of mind and health packages to employees' families during the epidemic.
2. Reduce the chances of corruption
If we want to reduce the occurrence of corruption, we must reduce the possibility of corruption. Montesquieu said in "On the Spirit of the Law": "All those who use power are prone to abuse power, and this is a lesson that is not easy to understand. People with power will never stop using their power to the limit...... To prevent abuse of power, it is necessary to use power to check power. [7] When individuals have relatively large and unfettered discretion, there is room for "rent-seeking", and from the perspective of economic rationality, it is inevitable that there will be the idea of "using power for personal gain". Therefore, it is necessary to control the sphere of personal power as much as possible.
The China-Laos Railway limits the scope of power of party members, cadres and employees through collective decision-making and job rotation systems. For example, the "Collective Decision-making System of the Party Working Committee on Major Matters" was formulated, and a meeting of the Party Working Committee was held for research and decision-making on major matters such as material price adjustment, commendation and reward, and recommendation of outstanding cadres, which improved the scientific and correct decision-making level of major matters while better restricting power [8]. 【9】
At the same time, perfect and meticulous institutional arrangements can reduce the degree of freedom of individual decision-making and effectively restrain power. The participating units of the China-Laos Railway have clarified their responsibilities through detailed institutional arrangements, standardized their behaviors, and reduced the randomness and arbitrariness of the work process.
For example, China Railway International Corporation and Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. have formulated the "Integrity Risk Prevention and Control Manual for Key Links in the Construction of China-Laos Railway Projects" around key links such as construction fund management, tax-free material management, and safety and quality control, refined 1,898 integrity risk prevention and control points, formulated 3,835 prevention and control measures, established and improved 12 systems and measures for integrity construction, and compiled them into the "Compilation of Supervision and Inspection Work Systems for Integrity Construction of China-Laos Railway Projects";[10] formulated the "Ten Code of Conduct for Integrity Construction of China-Laos Railway" Organize all employees to consciously standardize their performance behavior, and establish work accounts such as no ticket expenses, refusal of bribes and gifts. 【11】
China Railway Fifth Bureau sorted out the list of positive and negative powers of personnel in key positions, sorted out a total of 144 power contents of fund management, project subcontracting, material procurement, equipment leasing, and waste material disposal, and decomposed them according to their personal responsibilities and authority, clarified the "must do" and "can't" matters, and hung them in a conspicuous position in the office at the same time as their job responsibilities cards;[12] China Railway in the introduction of labor teams, material procurement and machinery and equipment leasing, external inspection and valuation, large amount of capital payment, important personnel appointment and dismissal recommendations, More than 30 management systems and methods have been formulated in key areas and key links such as evaluation, commendation and awards, as well as other issues involving the "three major and one large" [13], and various daily management behaviors of the project have been solidified and standardized in the form of systems.
3. Raise the cost of corruption
Corruption is a typical risk-making behavior. The decision-making process is nothing more than weighing the costs against the benefits, and when the costs are high, corruption is no longer attractive. American scholar Robert Crett pointed out in "Controlling Corruption": Corruption motive = bribery - moral loss - (opportunity to be discovered and judged * punishment received) > salary + moral satisfaction of integrity. [14] From this formula we can see that the cost of corruption, after deducting the moral damage, is equal to the opportunity to be discovered and punished*. Therefore, increasing the probability of corruption being detected and increasing the punishment for corruption can increase the cost of corruption.
Improving the probability of corruption being detected requires improved oversight mechanisms. The China-Laos Railway Project Headquarters and the Party Discipline Organizations of the participating units took the initiative to work closely with the Lao Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the discipline inspection organizations of various provinces, adopted a joint supervision and restraint mechanism, and regularly carried out joint supervision and inspection around the jointly determined 15 integrity risk points, such as land acquisition and demolition, bidding, material procurement, project subcontracting, visa processing, and material customs clearance. [15] This joint monitoring mechanism of international cooperation has innovated the way of international anti-corruption cooperation, and has reference significance for other projects along the "Belt and Road".
In addition, the China-Laos Railway has also implemented a democratic supervision and restraint mechanism focusing on democratic management. One of the participating units, China Railway Fifth Bureau, made public the decision-making results of cadre promotion, evaluation, punishment, introduction of labor team and procurement of materials and equipment, with 66 items made public; Finally, use mobile phones, the Internet, board newspapers and other platforms to publicize, give play to the role of mass supervision, and let power run in the sun. 【16】
Severe punishment for corrupt acts can serve as a warning and deterrent. The Second Bureau of China Railway will include the construction of integrity in credit evaluation, quarterly performance appraisal and other content, implement the "one-vote veto" system on integrity issues, and strictly conduct disciplinary review and accountability for personnel who violate laws and regulations and local customs overseas. 4 cases of projects failed to achieve the node construction period target and other matters were held accountable in a timely manner, and a total of 12 people were dealt with. Among them, 10 people were admonished and reminded to talk, 4 people were fined, and the penalty amount was 15,000 yuan. 【17】
On December 3, 2021, witnessed by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of the People's Republic of China, and Thongloun of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and President of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the China-Laos Railway was successfully put into operation.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
The efforts of the China-Laos Railway on the issue of anti-corruption have formed a standardized, orderly, honest and honest construction environment, ensured the standardized operation of the project, the smooth progress of the project, and the opening of the railway as scheduled, and also disseminated the concept of integrity, which is a concrete action to implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries on strengthening anti-corruption cooperation and building a clean road, and has played an exemplary role in promoting the "Belt and Road" to become a clean road.
Exegesis:
1. Lin Yi, "The Construction of the "Honest Road" of the China-Laos Railway", International Engineering and Labor Services, No. 12, 2018.
2. Wang Lixin and Gu Zhimin, "The "System-Behavior" Analytical Model of Power Corruption", Journal of Southwest Normal University, No. 4, 2002.
3. Zhou Xuming, "The Construction of China-Laos Railway Prevents Integrity Risks", Integrity Outlook, No. 10, 2017.
4. China Railway Party Committee: "Building a Integrity Demonstration Project on the "Belt and Road" China Railway China-Laos Railway "Integrity Road" Construction Experience", State-owned Assets Report, No. 9, 2020.
5. Wang Zhaojie, Guo Weina, "Building High-quality Projects and Building a Clean Road", People's Railway, December 3, 2021, 1st edition.
6. China Railway Party Committee: "Building a Integrity Demonstration Project on the Belt and Road China Railway China-Laos Railway "Integrity Road" Construction Experience", State-owned Assets Report, No. 9, 2020.
7. Citation: Wu Weidong, "Economic Analysis and Countermeasures of Public Power Corruption", Journal of Hubei University of Economics, No. 1, 2008.
8. Yuan Rongsheng, Yang Mingxin, Huang Zongwen, "Party Building Leads the Construction of China-Laos Railway to Strive for Excellence", Enterprise Civilization, No. 11, 2018.
9. Yang Xiumin, "Discussion on Measures to Strengthen the Control of Integrity Risks of Overseas Engineering Projects under the New Situation", Modern Corporate Culture, No. 25, 2020.
10. China Railway Party Committee: "Building a Integrity Demonstration Project on the Belt and Road China Railway China-Laos Railway "Integrity Road" Construction Experience", State-owned Assets Report, No. 9, 2020.
11. Wang Zhaojie and Guo Weina, "Building High-quality Projects and Building a Clean Road", People's Railway, December 3, 2021, 1st edition.
12. Yuan Rongsheng, Yang Mingxin, Huang Zongwen, "Party Building Leads the Construction of China-Laos Railway to Strive for Excellence", Enterprise Civilization, No. 11, 2018.
13. Decision-making on major matters, appointment and removal of important cadres, investment decisions on major projects, and use of large amounts of funds.
14. Wu Weidong, "Economic Analysis and Countermeasures of Public Power Corruption", Journal of Hubei University of Economics, No. 1, 2008.
15. Deep Attention | Headlines all the way to the south, a common destiny ———— headlines——Website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission (ccdi.gov.cn)
16. Yuan Rongsheng, Yang Mingxin, Huang Zongwen, "Party Building Leads the Construction of China-Laos Railway to Strive for Excellence", Enterprise Civilization, No. 11, 2018.
17. Zhou Xuming, "The Construction of the China-Laos Railway Prevents Integrity Risks", Integrity Outlook, No. 10, 2017.
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