Release Event of China’s PPP Market Transparency Report and PPP Market Academic Seminar Successfully Held

On the morning of December 18, 2020, the School ofPublic Economics and Administration and the China Public Finance Institute ofShanghai University of Finance and Economics successfully held the “Release Eventof China’s PPP Market Transparency Report and PPP Market Academic Seminar”. After the 2017China’s PPP Market Transparency Report and the 2018 China’s PPP Market Transparency Report, the Research Group ofPPP Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics has evaluated thecurrent status of information disclosure in China’s PPP market again. Theconference adopted a combination of online and offline modes. The distinguishedparticipants including but not limited to Jiao Xiaoping, Director General andthe head of China PPP Center under the Ministry of Finance, Yang Jianmin,Deputy Director General of China PPP Center under the Ministry of Finance,Professor Ding Huang of Wuhan University, Professor Zhou Yahong, Director ofthe School of Economics of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, MasatoAbe and Beini Liu, Economic Affairs Officers of the UN Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and the Pacific, Mikel Tejada-Ibanez, PPP Expert of theWorld Bank, as well as reporters from news media such as people.cn, Xinhua NewsAgency, China Business Network, The Economic Observer, China Economic Weekly,China News Service, eastday.com and China Securities Journal, etc. attended theConference. The Public Management Finance and Regional Cooperation Division ofthe East Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank wished the event and theseminar a complete success via email. Xu Fei, Executive Vice President ofShanghai University of Finance and Economics, Fang Fang, Director of the Schoolof Public Economics and Administration, Wang Feng, Deputy Director of theSchool of Public Economics and Administration, and Zong Qingqing, Director ofthe Department of Investment attended the Conference. The Conference waschaired by Deputy Director Wang Feng.

On behalf of the University, Xu Fei, Executive VicePresident of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, extended warmwelcome and thanks to all guests attending the conference. He stated that PPPwas simply used as a market-oriented investment and financing method adopted bythe government in the past but has been upgraded to a system and mechanismreform with regard to the marketization and social supply of public services since2014. In the actual context of information transparency having become a keyindicator for measurement of the PPP market development quality, the ResearchGroup of PPP Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics has issuedthe “China’s PPP Market Transparency Report” for three consecutive years, whichhas led to good social response and has become a brand think tank constructionproject of the University’s School of Public Economics and Administration and PublicFinance Institute.

Mr. Jiao Xiaoping pointed out in his speech thatinformation disclosure is a new drive for the high-quality economic developmentand a new development pattern of China. The information disclosure in the areaof PPP in China has accelerated the establishment of a standardized,transparent, efficient and unified PPP market. And the upgraded National PPP InformationPlatform equipped with cutting-edge information technologies has furtherimproved the information disclosure and powered China to build a high-qualityPPP market. China’s PPP development as well as its information disclosure has benefitedfrom the guidance and assistance of international multilateral institutions, andalso been evaluated by them objectively and impartially with positive results. Inorder to further improve the information disclosure in the PPP area, in thenest step it should be prioritized to optimize disclosure measures, strengthendisclosure efforts and foster international cooperation. Meanwhile, Mr. Jiaofully affirmed the objective assessment made by Shanghai University of Financeand Economics as a party independent to both public and private partners, on thetransparency of China’s PPP market. And he believes that series of suchassessment have become a strong force in promoting the high-quality developmentof China’s PPP market, and have represented a significant step into theexploration of innovative social governance based on collaboration and broadparticipation with the goal to bring benefits to all.

Subsequently, Fang Fang, Head of the Research Group,released the Chinese-English bilingual 2019China’s PPP Market Transparency Report on behalf of the Research Group.According to her introduction, the Research Group carried out the assessment ofinformation disclosure works with regard to 9,398 projects in the PPPmanagement database of the Ministry of Finance by the end of 2019 in detail,and compiled a set of “2019 China’s PPP Market Transparency Indexes”. The indexesinclude 75 indicator fields, and are classified into the immediately disclosed transparencyindex, the timely disclosed transparency index, and the transparency sub-indexesof identification phase, preparation phase, procurement phase andimplementation phase, etc. By means of statistics and analysis of the specificresults of indexes, the Research Group found that the 2019 overall index of thenational PPP market transparency was 76.19, representing a further improvement from2018. Upon decomposition of exit effect, stock effect and entry effect, theprojects with poor transparency indexes were withdrawn from the database, andthe projects remaining in the database improved their information disclosure. Inaddition, the indexes of new projects were slightly higher than those of stockprojects. These factors have jointly promoted the improvement of 2019PPP markettransparency indexes. The Research Group also analyzed the informationdisclosure status of PPP intermediaries, and it was found that the averagescore of intermediaries’ transparency indexes was 75.20, representing littlechange when compared with last year. Moreover, it was found upon furtheranalysis that the transparency index scores of intermediaries had significant positivecorrelation with the number of PPP projects in which intermediaries participatedand the existing period of intermediaries.

After that, Masato Abe, Economic Affairs Officer ofthe U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, MikelTejada-Ibanez, PPP Expert of the World Bank, Ding Huang, Professor of WuhanUniversity, Professor Zhou Yahong, Director of the School of Economics ofShanghai University of Finance and Economics, and other guests discussed the topicof “Information Disclosure and Sustainable Development of PPP”. The attending expertspertinently evaluated the results of the 2019China’s PPP Market Transparency Report and stated that informationdisclosure is both an important guarantee for and an essential requirement ofPPP market’s high-quality development, the effective information disclosure isconducive to promoting the active participation of social capital in PPPprojects, information disclosure of China’s PPP market has achieved goodresults and been developing constantly, and it is worth the continuous trackingand evaluation and the strengthened international exchanges. The master anddoctor degree candidates of the School of Public Economics and Administrationof Shanghai University of Finance and Economics also actively participated inthe seminar. The conference achieved a complete success.