Attracting investment is an important way for local governments to achieve economic development.
However, the reporter's investigation found that some places have fallen into excessive involution in the process of attracting investment, and the construction of "luxurious" factories, investment returns, and tax exemptions have become routine operations, resulting in an increase in local financial pressure, affecting the local industrial order and cadre status.
In view of the involution type of investment promotion, it is urgent to improve the investment supervision mechanism in various places, and establish a unified national government affairs platform, so that the investment promotion can return to an orderly and reasonable state.
Excessive involution, vicious competition
Investment promotion is an important starting point for all localities to boost confidence, release signals and strengthen industries. In the survey, it is difficult for some places to achieve a game of chess at the national, provincial and municipal levels in the process of attracting investment, resulting in vicious competition.
-- Excessive involution in key areas and the signing of "confidentiality agreements" with preferential policies. The reporter's investigation found that new energy vehicles, photovoltaic modules, platform economy and other industries have become supporters of investment promotion in many places, and vicious competition has appeared in some places. A local cadre told reporters that the platform economy is a relatively hot industry in the central and western regions, and a number of platform enterprises have been actively introduced in various localities, and some localities have been fighting for the introduction of the same enterprise. "A freight platform company has several counties in the same city in the competition, the discounts given are getting more and more outrageous, and the return amount is getting higher and higher, and finally the city leaders came forward to stop this vicious internal competition. The cadre said.
In a certain city, when the reporter investigated the preferential policy support given by the local government to a well-known domestic automobile company, he was told that this belonged to the scope of "confidentiality agreement". According to industry insiders, the unwritten rule is that the main engine factory "moves in", that is, the local government provides land, "builds" factories on behalf of others, and "buys" equipment on behalf of others, and invests billions of yuan at every turn.
-- "Sticking money to make money", a project empties a county. In some places, in the process of attracting investment, there are unconventional preferential policies such as the return of investment in fixed assets and the "five exemptions and five halves" of taxes and fees. A county government official revealed that since the county launched a 10 billion project, the county finances have almost been hollowed out. "Large enterprises have enough right to speak, and the preferential policies that require the return of fixed asset investment, five exemptions and five halves of taxes and fees, etc., are completely unconventional agreements. ”
"60,000 yuan per acre of land is sold to enterprises, but in fact, the cost of the government is 300,000 yuan. Local governments pay 'real money', but they don't see a return for several years. A staff member of an investment promotion center in a city said.
-- The task of attracting investment has been delegated layer by layer, and "investment promotion week" and "investment promotion month" have emerged in an endless stream. Some cities, counties, and districts not only assign the task of attracting investment to various departments and townships, but even assign the task of attracting investment to villages. Under the pressure of assessment, cadres in counties, towns, villages, and various departments had to use all their resources and connections and invest a lot of time in attracting investment. In order to accomplish the task of attracting investment, cadres at all levels can no longer take into account whether the recruited enterprises are suitable and whether there is room for local industrial transfer.
A cadre from a mountainous county said that the local government officials are required to go out to solicit investment more than six times a year. A local cadre said that the local government has a monthly investment promotion week to encourage party and government cadres to go out and attract investment.
Affect the local industrial order and the state of cadres
Some grassroots cadres pointed out that at present, the underdeveloped areas are working hard to undertake projects along the southeast coast, and a small number of local governments are trying every means to "dig into the wall" to grab projects, and this disorderly practice will cause internal friction among the underdeveloped areas. In addition, regions with better economies are also seeking new economic growth points, and attracting investment has become a quick and feasible way. However, the disorderly attraction of investment has had some negative effects.
Some respondents said that in some places, from rural to urban, there is a tendency for industrial homogenization and market hollowing. When talking about the biopharmaceutical industry in the survey, some grassroots cadres said that there are almost no strategic emerging industries in many places that do not put the biological industry into it.
An underdeveloped county in the south has launched two lithium battery production lines through investment promotion, but the loss has been foreseen before the product is produced. "Lithium batteries are being launched all over the country, the market can't digest so many products, the profit margins are getting smaller and smaller, and the government has invested too much in the early stage, so we can only bite the bullet. A local cadre said.
Involution may have adverse consequences for local finances. A small number of enterprises have enjoyed the policy and left, and the day of production is the time of bankruptcy. Some grassroots cadres said that more than 500 million yuan would have been spent on industrial and commercial subsidies in a county, and that life would have been better if there had been no investment attraction.
"It is unlikely that the county will recruit large projects, and it is necessary to give others very preferential policies, and some enterprises will leave after the 5-year preferential policies. A director of the finance bureau of a county said that the county inspected the development zone and found that the company had cheated tens of millions of decoration subsidies and equipment subsidies before leaving, and could only crush his teeth and swallow it in his stomach.
Local involution investment has also given birth to migratory bird enterprises. These firms have not led to productivity gains, nor have they led to economic growth. The circulation of enterprises in different regions, especially in the central and western provinces, has formed an illusory increment, which is a bubble for the whole.
Some local cadres have fallen into formalism. A local leading cadre told reporters that attracting investment has caused some cadres to fall into the formalism of "fake, big, and empty." "In order to deal with the investment promotion, some cadres even began to compile data to deal with the leaders, just after contacting once, they dared to say that the basic negotiation was completed, and some cadres searched for some basic materials on the Internet and dared to report to the leaders the progress of key projects. ”
Local investment promotion urgently needs to be corrected and relaxed
At present, we are speeding up the construction of a large national unified market, and at the same time, we must speed up the construction of a large national unified government affairs that is compatible with this, so as to alleviate the phenomenon of attracting investment and involution. In the overall planning of major investment and the distribution of productive forces, we must not act arbitrarily and recklessly, and we must strengthen overall macroeconomic regulation and control.
At the same time, improve the supervision and restraint mechanism for investment promotion. On the one hand, it is necessary to rationally formulate the objectives of investment promotion in various places, strengthen the construction of investment promotion teams, improve the efficiency of government services, and focus on strengthening the assessment of project implementation; on the other hand, improve the scientificity of decision-making, strengthen the prevention and avoidance of investment promotion risks, and guide grassroots governments to pay more attention to quality and performance while attaching importance to quantity. Intensify the investigation and punishment of all kinds of investment promotion scams, strictly restrict "unconventional preferential treatments", as well as local "drawer agreements" and "hidden subsidies", etc., so as to eliminate as much as possible the space for enterprises to "change places to get subsidies".
Many private entrepreneurs suggested that attention should be paid to mobilizing the enthusiasm of local enterprises, and the cultivation and expansion of local enterprises should be regarded as an important measure for the development of the grassroots economy, and the expansion of local enterprises should be closely combined with investment attraction to promote mutual coexistence and common prosperity. Encourage and guide local leading enterprises with development potential to become bigger and stronger, and avoid falling into the trap of "foreign monks will chant scriptures" in the process of industrial development. It is a long-term strategy to create a fair and just business environment, a predictable legal environment, and a supportive environment for all kinds of enterprises.
Original title: "Involution Investment Promotion Gains Outweigh Losses"
Source: "Half Moon Talk Internal Edition" Issue 3, 2024
Editor: Wang Muyin
Review: Ji Haitao
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