A person in charge of an urban investment company in the eastern province has recently been busy preparing for the establishment of the city's first data asset management company. He told reporters that to establish such a company, it is necessary to register data assets, including state-owned enterprise operation data and public service data.
At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued a notice on the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Data Asset Management", which clearly stated the "asset attributes" of data. Entering 2024, local governments have set off a boom in setting up data asset management companies.
The reporter queried through the Tianyancha platform, and searched by keywords such as state-owned enterprises, established within one year, and data groups, and a total of 183 related enterprises were established. Among them, there are data industry companies established by provincial and municipal local governments and urban investment companies, as well as data companies established by district and county-level governments. Some local governments that have not yet established data asset companies have also held meetings to discuss matters related to the preparation of big data companies.
The enthusiasm of local governments comes from the following: first, the promotion of policies, and second, the data can be used as asset financing. Some of the local governments that have moved first have used data assets to obtain financing from local city commercial banks.
The head of the above-mentioned urban investment company said that local governments have set up data asset management companies, and the biggest need is to improve the current balance sheet and strive to achieve the financing function.
Xiao Guangrui, CEO of Mingshu Data Technology, judged that the development of data assetization of local governments or local financing platforms will accelerate in the future. Xiao Guangrui's company is carrying out a number of projects on the entry of data assets into the balance sheet and financing of local state-owned enterprises.
The urban investment platform is the "money bag" of the local government and is known as the "second finance" of the local government. In order to facilitate financing, local governments continue to load various valuable assets such as land into platform companies to reduce their debt ratios, thereby improving financing efficiency and reducing financing costs.
Since 2023, under the dual pressure of tight fiscal revenue and declining land transfer fees, the inclusion of data assets in the balance sheet has become a tool that can alleviate the pressure, and a number of "data urban investment" - data asset management companies - should also be born from time to time.
Yuan Haixia, executive director of the Research Institute of China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co., Ltd., said that the recent establishment of data asset companies by many local governments is to echo policy guidelines and optimize their balance sheets, which is conducive to broadening financing channels;
From the Big Data Bureau to the Finance Bureau
From 2023 to 2024, local governments will be more motivated to set up data asset management companies.
On April 15, 2024, Baoding High-tech Data Asset Management Co., Ltd. was established. In the same month, Handan Data Asset Operation Co., Ltd. was established. On June 6, 2023, Hubei Data Group Co., Ltd. was established, with Hubei Liantou Group Co., Ltd. as the controlling shareholder and Hubei State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission as the actual controller, with a registered capital of 5 billion yuan, and its business scope includes Internet data services and big data services. According to public information, Hangzhou, Weifang and other cities or subordinate districts are also preparing to establish data groups.
The first step in setting up a data group is to map data resources. The content list of a prefecture-level city's 2024 mapping data resources obtained by the Economic Observer includes the name of the data resource, the construction time of the system, the data business field, the storage situation, the data capacity, and the analysis of whether the data assets can be formed.
In the last round of local government data construction boom, many places have established big data bureaus as the competent units for data business. At present, the establishment of data asset management companies is mainly led by local financial departments, and the specific data is collected and collected by the big data bureau, and then loaded into the data asset management company to be established.
At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued a notice on the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Data Assets", which clearly stated the "asset attributes" of data: Party and government organs, enterprises and institutions at all levels authorized to have public affairs management and public service functions in accordance with the law shall include public data resources that they hold or control in the course of performing their duties in accordance with the law or providing public services that are expected to generate management service potential or bring economic benefits to the inflow of public data assets into the scope of asset management.
In an interview, the Economic Observer found that data asset management companies are mainly provincial and municipal, and there are relatively few at the district and county levels. A person in charge of asset management in the district and county finance department told the Economic Observer that the requirements for data assets to be included in the table are very high, and the degree of informatization of the district and county-level governments is low, so it is necessary to carry out system interfaces and data resource aggregation. "We once invited professionals to give lectures in the bureau, talking about 'how to put data into the table as an asset', at first they can still understand, and then talk about how to confirm data rights, collect data, and how to access various interfaces, many people don't understand, such a professional thing, it is still a big test for the management department. Said the above-mentioned person.
Xiao Guangrui believes that provincial and municipal governments have advantages in terms of resources, policies, funds, and technology, and can more effectively promote the development of data asset operating companies, while district and county governments may need more time and support to gradually establish corresponding operating institutions. With the in-depth development of the digital economy, the number of data asset operation companies at the district and county levels may gradually increase in the future.
Data Asset Financing
The local government where the person in charge of the above-mentioned urban investment company is located is not only preparing to set up a data asset company, but also to set up a data registration service center in order to standardize the process of data asset entry and confirm the registration of data assets.
The person in charge of the above-mentioned urban investment company said: "We are going to import state-owned enterprise data and agricultural data into the data asset management company first. The data of private enterprises is relatively sensitive, and the sense of trust in the outside world is not particularly high, so it is basically based on the data of public resources that the government can influence. ”
Since 2024, more than 10 urban investment companies have clearly disclosed that they will include data assets in the table, and the assets included in the table are mainly public utility data such as public transportation, heating, water supply, and transportation. For example, Guangdong United Electronic Services Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangdong Communications Group Co., Ltd., uses the data of Guangdong Provincial Expressway exits, entrances and road network traffic as data assets in the table.
Nanjing Public Transport (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanjing Public Transport Group"), a wholly-owned secondary group of Nanjing Urban Construction Investment Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., also successfully completed the consolidation of data resource assetization in January 2024.
Previously, land was the most important asset on the balance sheet of local governments in the broad sense, but the value of this asset is shrinking due to the volatility of the real estate market.
In the first quarter of 2024, the revenue from the transfer of state-owned land use rights was 814.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.7%. A local government investment and financing source told the Economic Observer that in recent years, urban investment companies have taken too much land from local governments, land prices have fallen, a large amount of land cannot be traded and realized, and the balance sheet of urban investment assets has shrunk, and new assets are urgently needed to replenish it.
Xiao Guangrui told the Economic Observer that the inclusion of data assets in the table is of great significance to local government financing platforms (urban investment companies). The first is to improve the financial statements and improve the financial health and credit rating of enterprises by increasing the scale of assets and reducing the level of financial leverage; secondly, it can expand the asset scale of local financing platforms, which will help enhance the market competitiveness and financing ability of enterprises.
Obviously, the financing capacity of local urban investment platforms is closely related to their balance sheets. Some local governments have started to use this tool for financing after the data assets are included in the table.
In December 2023, Taishan Development and Investment Co., Ltd. entered its own "Taishan Easy Park" parking data assets into the table, obtained a credit from Tai'an Taishan Rural Commercial Bank, and successfully obtained a loan of 5 million yuan.
On April 25, 2024, Bank of Wenzhou successfully landed the "Credit Data Treasure" pledge financing, and Wenzhou Big Data Operation Co., Ltd. successfully obtained a financing credit of 3.78 million yuan, close to 4 times the value of assets on the balance sheet. This "Credit Data Treasure" is also the first data asset to be successfully entered into the table in China.
There are those who act even earlier.
In September 2023, the above-mentioned Nanjing Urban Construction Group began to start the data asset entry work, through the entry of about 70 billion public transport data resources of its Nanjing Public Transport Group, through 7 steps of data inventory and aggregation, application scenario mining, compliance confirmation, quality evaluation, value evaluation, resource registration, and resource entry into the table, and finally confirmed and registered 70 billion data resources on the Beijing International Big Data Exchange.
On March 25, 2024, Nanjing Public Transport Group successfully obtained a data asset financing credit of 10 million yuan from China Everbright Bank Nanjing Branch, realizing the "effective conversion of commodity value to financial value of data assets".
The above cases have a strong demonstration effect. According to the Economic Observer, since the beginning of the year, many cities such as Nanjing, Chongqing, and Xuchang have been promoting the entry of parking data into the table.
Urban investment companies can obtain financing through data assets, such as pledging data assets to obtain loans, which provides new financing channels and tools for urban investment companies.
Xiao Guangrui said that the inclusion of data assets in the table will help urban investment companies transform from traditional urban construction and operation models to digitalization and informatization, which is in line with the current development strategy of smart cities and digital economy.
With the support of policies and the emergence of more and more cases of data assets bidding, data assetization will become a key step in the digital transformation of enterprises and governments, more enterprises and government departments will treat data as core assets for management and use, the market-oriented operation of data assets will be further enhanced, and the value of data assets will also be reflected and utilized through market mechanisms.
Xiao Guangrui predicts that the current market practice is more about data asset pledge financing, and with the mining of the value of data assets in application scenarios and the formation of predictable sustainable returns, the financial instruments and products that match data assets will be further enriched, and the ways of data asset financialization and securitization will be greatly increased.
The true value of data
Since the beginning of 2022, the policy level has been driving data assets to play a positive role.
In 2022, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Building a Data Basic System to Better Play the Role of Data Elements", making comprehensive arrangements for the construction of a data basic system, and in 2023, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China", which further pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the establishment of a data property rights system and carry out research on the valuation of data assets. The Interim Provisions on Accounting Treatment Related to Enterprise Data Resources, issued in August of that year, also provided a technical path for the entry of digital assets into the table, which came into effect on January 1.
Managing data as an asset and creating value is an inevitable trend in the development of China's digital economy. An asset management expert believes that to achieve data asset management and value creation, the first thing to do is to solve the registration problem of data assets, and then fully release the value of data assets.
"Not all data has value. Xiao Guangrui said that to determine whether data has transaction value, it is necessary to evaluate from several aspects, namely market demand, data quality, legal compliance, cost and benefit analysis, competitive environment, etc.
The above-mentioned asset management experts said that the formation of data assets is essentially the process of capitalization of data resources, which means that not all data can become assets. First, the data assets formed by capitalization have the economic attributes of general asset form, such as circulation, tradability, value-addedness, and value assessment; secondly, data assets, especially public data assets, should first be included in the asset regulatory framework, and then continuously improve the relevant accounting system and improve accounting methods according to the actual situation, so as to actively and steadily promote the work of "entering accounts and entering into the table" in a realistic, prudent and realistic manner.
Xiao Guangrui also reminded that local government financing platforms should pay attention to data security risks. He said that the security management of data assets is the primary risk faced by local governments. Unauthorized access, data leakage or alteration, and inappropriate disclosure of information can all cause damage to the public interest and may result in legal liability and loss of reputation.
In addition, there is the risk of assessment and confirmation of rights. Xiao Guangrui said that the confirmation of the ownership of data assets is a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders. Unclear definition of rights can lead to legal disputes and loss of economic benefits.
According to the relevant regulations, the cost method, the income method and the market method can be used to evaluate the value of data assets, and the cost method is more used in practice. There is considerable uncertainty in the return of data assets, and their fair asset value needs to be tested and adjusted in more practice, and there is a risk that the asset value will be overestimated or underestimated.
Xiao Guangrui believes that in order to deal with these risks, local governments need to establish a sound data asset management framework, including security protocols, compliance monitoring, technical maintenance, professional personnel training and emergency plans. At the same time, research on data asset value evaluation and risk management should be strengthened to ensure the sound operation and maximization of data assets. In addition, in order to deal with issues such as rights confirmation, transactions, and security in the operation of data assets, it is expected that more relevant laws, regulations, and standards will be issued to provide norms and guidance for the operation of data assets.