| From the beginning of the coming into service of Japanese Tokaido Shinkansen in1964, high-speed railway across the world has formed two different railway technologysystems after more than40year’s development, typified by Japanese Shinkansen N799series plus E5series, and French TGV with German ICE respectively. The plan toconstruct high-speed railway in China has drawn much attention from thedecision-makers in1990, and has been put into effect in the late1990s. With theimplementation of Chinese railway’s leapfrog development strategy in the21st centuryand the enactment of National Plan for Medium-term and Long-term Development ofRailway Network in2004, Chinese high-speed railway has witnessed a rapid growth ina few years. The opening of Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway in August1st,2008marksthat Chinese railway industry has entered “the era of high-speed railway” officially. Tillthe end of2012, the mileage of Chinese high-speed railway passenger special linereaches9346km, ranks first in the world and surpasses the sum of the high-speedrailway mileage in all the other countries. CRH technology genealogy has entered theworld high-speed technology system as a brand new member.In the early days of high-speed railway development, it is believed that thedevelopment of high-speed railway is just a business inside the railway industry and thisonly means to build higher level railway network and to adopt high-speed trainequipment. With the great achievements obtained in the process of introduction,digestion and re-innovation of new technology, and the revolutionary influences exertedby the construction of high-speed railway network on Chinese regional economicdevelopment, urbanization and the promotion of industrial structure, high-speed railwayhas become a new national strategic industry. In the7th world high-speed railwaymeeting held in the end of2010, a leader from State Council declared unequivocallythat Chinese government has taken high-speed railway as a new strategic industry thatneeds high priority. In2011, State Council’s Decisions on Speeding up Fostering andDeveloping New Strategic Industries has listed the development of new strategicindustries as one of the principal tasks of the period for “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”,among which one of the keys to high-end equipment manufacturing industry is to takegreat efforts to develop rail transportation equipment based on the construction of keyprojects such as passenger special line and urban rail transportation. In the end of2012,The18th National Congress of the CPC has regarded the development of high-speed railway as one of the important accomplishments in the process of building creativecountry and gives it full recognition. Moreover, high-speed railway has become ahallmark of surface transportation high-tech besides space technology and oceandetection technology.The development of high-speed railway has brought about profound changes inChinese economy and society, but the development does not go off smoothly. Thedisputations about whether China needs high-speed railway and how to development itrun through the whole process of the development of high-speed railway. Thehigh-speed railway industry has faced many new pressures due to the accident onNingbo-Wenzhou line and the problems of debts in financing, safety of operation,quality of construction, management and cadres’ corruption. How to improve themanagement of the standardization of high-speed railway equipment and to improve thematurity of the high-speed railway equipment technology and the level of operationalmanagement, and how to deal with relations such as input and output, speed andsecurity, quality and time period, benefit and efficiency, standard and demand, have putforward many new challenges to the development of high-speed railway industry. At thebeginning of2013, State Council’s Plan to Reshuffle Institutes and to TransformGovernment Functions is adopted and the Ministry of Railway will be split intoadministrative and commercial units. The adoption and implementation of the importantmeasures of railway mechanism reform will have a significant impact on the operationand management of the existing high-speed railway and the long-term development ofhigh-speed railway construction. Under the circumstance of the support fromgovernment existing policies remaining unchanged, high-speed railway industry isconfronted with many problems such as how to maintain its proper position and gainfurther development, how to resolve the problems about its driving forces andmechanism, how to increase the investment fund sources of high-speed railwayconstruction, how to promote its safety supervision, how to boost the combinatoryefficiency of multiple transportation channels, how to cope with the fierce competitionfrom international high-speed railway technology companies. This dissertation aims toanswer and resolve the above problems effectively and pertinently by combining historyand reality and adapting theory with practice.The first part of this dissertation first describes the developmental history, statusquo and orientation of high-speed railway industry systematically, then expounds thecontribution made by the development of high-speed railway industry to Chinese society and economy, and analyses the advantages and disadvantages of high-speedrailway development from the perspectives of management mechanism, pricingregulation, the distribution of transportation resources, and the operation andmanagement of railway transportation enterprises, finally elucidates the policies that thedevelopment of high-speed railway industry needs.The innovation point of this part are that it takes high-speed railway industry as awhole system, and explores the relations among every subsystem, industrial core layerand external industry chain inside high-speed railway industry based on thedevelopment of the whole industry so as to widen the research horizon of industrialdevelopment and to make this research more pertinent. High-speed railway industry is astrategic industry consisting of the operation of CRH trains as the core, and research anddevelopment of technology, infrastructure construction of railway passenger speciallines, manufacture of locomotive equipment, towing and power supply, moderntechnology of telecommunication and signals, product design and service etc asintermediate links. Put high-speed railway industry in the system of national economy, itcan be divided into three components. The first is high-speed railway technology layer.The second is high-speed railway industrial core layer that can be divided into foursubsystems i.e. research and development of technology, manufacture of locomotiveequipment, construction of track projects, and high-speed railway operation andtransportation management. The third is the upstream and downstream industry chainlayers related to high-speed railway industry. This dissertation takes high-speed railwayindustrial core layer as its principal object of study, and by comparing the developmentof high-speed railway industry under the traditional institution and that under thecondition of separating government functions from enterprise management, it exploresthe introduction, research and innovation of high-speed railway, the transformation fromits technology chain to its industry chain, and the relations of mutual influence,restriction and coordination among the subsystems inside that industry, and the positivecorrelation effect high-speed railway industry has on the other national economicindustrial systems and regional economic development, then points out thedevelopmental orientation of high-speed railway industry, finally indicates thesignificance and urgency of the developmental policy study of high-speed railwayindustry.The second part centers mainly on the process of policy formulation, the importantpolicy content and the implementing means of policies, and presents according suggestions and proposals in the fields of regulatory institutions, pricing and safetyregulation, technology development, reform of investment and financing, and regionalarrangement of high-speed railway industry respectively.At the aspect of regulatory institutions, the objective of Chinese high-speed railwayindustry regulation is to readjust the relations between government and high-speedrailway enterprises, between high-speed railway enterprises and the market so as tomake government regulation more swift and flexible to adapt itself to the economic andsocial changes. As far as regulatory agencies and regulatory subjects are concerned, thepresent key point is to do two tasks well. One is to merge regulatory agencies and carryout integrate management. A united regulatory agency that ought to be under theNational Congress or State council and be clear-cut in the division of labor, clear inresponsibilities, concert in step, and independent, should be established to managehigh-speed railway industry, to regulate and supervise the plan of railway networkconstruction, the pricing of high-speed railway, safety control, product quality andservice standard, market access and withdrawal and so on. The other is to regulate bylaw and to pursue a “Legislation First” principle. There must be explicit detailed lawsabout the regulatory standard, means, methods and implementing rules and theregulation must be reasonable under the condition of ensuring the enterprises to beindependent market subjects and being conducive to the legal operation of theenterprises. As to the regulatory object, that is high-speed railway enterprise, it ought todeepen the reform of marketization, set up modern enterprise system, and enhance thecorporate governance structure. Among the four subsystems of high-speed railwayindustry, the other three subsystems have attained a higher marketization level and theirstatus as independent market subjects has basically been established. Only railwayenterprise as the operation and management subsystem of high-speed railway industryhas not set up modern enterprise system yet, and thus its market business is stillconstrained by a lot of subjective and objective factors. Therefore, the most urgent taskof high-speed railway industry is to reform the management system of high-speedrailway service section, ensure the service section to be independent market subject, andmake a fuller exhibition of the advantages of high-speed railway in speed, technology,quality and service. The marketization reform of railway enterprises still needs to makebreakthroughs in two fronts besides the basic directions and main measures establishedin State Council’s Plan to Reshuffle Institutes and to Transform Government Functions.One is to conduct shareholding reform for railway passenger special line following the mode of China Railway Corporation and enhance the corporate governance structure.The other is to establish a subsidy mechanism for railway transportation in the publicinterest so as to provide a fair and equal competition environment to high-speed railwayindustry.The regulation of high-speed rail industry includes price regulation policies,market access regulation, market exit regulation, products and service quality regulation,safety regulation system. The paper innovatively put forward that high-speed railindustry regulation would focus on strengthening the following two aspects, the first isto accelerate the reform of the price mechanism, establishing the operating mechanismwith flexible response to the changes in the market. The high-speed rail industry shouldestablish price formation, price structure and price movements institution to meet theneeds of the market system. Complying with the public interests and the principle ofuniversal service, to give rail transport enterprise flexible pricing power between thelower and upper price boundary based on the specific control standards, procedures andmethods, should be a direction of high-speed rail freight determined in the future. Thesecond is to use national high-speed rail product quality and safety regulationexperiences as a reference and establish independent and authoritative high-speed railproduct quality and safety regulator, specially taking charge of the construction andconsign of the projects, examination and approval of equipment, vehicles built, purchaselicense, accident survey and analysis, accident liability, compensation and theresponsibility punishment, network access and interconnection and interworkingexamination and supervision, government invest project management, and so on,institutionally ensuring the safety production and operation in high-speed rail.In technology innovation policies, the paper proposes that promoting thedevelopment of industrial technology in high-speed rail, still must be a focus ofattention for the development of high-speed rail industry. On the one hand, thehigh-speed rail technology has been able to achieve significant development andbreakthrough in short term, which is inseparable with the Chinese governmentreasonable planning and an effective organization and strong support in the process ofindustrial development of high-speed rail. On the other hand, China’s high-speed railtechnology made significant innovations and breakthroughs in a range of keytechnology areas, but whether these techniques has become a mature and standardizedtechnology, it needs time to test, in the meantime, the world’s technology becomes morecompetitive in the process of internationalization of the high-speed rail industry. The government continues to display the Strategic planning and organization leading role, atthe same time, we must continue to promote the technological innovation of thehigh-speed rail technology, protect us against the vicious cycle of backward-introduction-and then backward-the introduction; establish railway technicalstandards system corresponding our country’s current and the world’s high-speed railtechnology develop trends; give great importance to the protection of intellectualproperty rights of high-speed rail technology, and to lay the foundation for theinternational direction of the high-speed rail industry; strengthen the cultivating andtraining of technical staff in high-speed rail industry.In regional distribution planning, high-speed rail regional distribution should beadjusted with and match the overall economic development level and regional economicdevelopment needs, urbanization development speed and urban group distributionpattern, population size and population distribution density, particular politicalenvironment and the natural and geographical conditions, the overall advantages andcombination efficiency of different transportation modes. The paper gives an overallanalysis of the technology structure, road network structure, the structure of the timeseries of the industrial regional distribution, and the backbone status in integratedtransportation system, aims at the problems of the regional distribution of thehigh-speed rail, two suggestions are proposed. First, give full play to the high-speed railnetwork in the overall transportation system starring role ensuring that high-speed rail isboth efficiently way of brought passenger together from other modes of transportation,but also efficiently in shunting the passenger to the highways, civil aviation and the citybus, rail transportation, and strengthen synergies of different modes of transportation.Second, the distribution of the high-speed rail should comprehensively consider theroutes of various modes of transport, hub choice and the role of location to regionaleconomic development, which is concerned about the development and pilot role of theratio of high-speed rail or highway transportation to regional economy.In terms of investment and financing policies, the paper presents that thedevelopment model of debt financing the former Ministry of Railways led has beenprogress into the system revenue decreasing stage, currently, the reform of theinvestment and financing system must continue to deepen, and investment and financingmechanism and policy system which fit for high-speed railway development should bebuilt. To deepen the reform of the investment and financing system, the trading rules ofthe high-speed rail should be improved; when taking equity financing, debt financing based financing, matching degree of policy design and high-speed rail company’sgrowth cycle should be paid attention to. Subsidies system for a welfare line with thepublic service transport should be established. The establishment of the railwaydevelopment fund should be accelerated. Due to the large size and long capital returnperiod features of the high-speed railway construction investment, no matter whatstimulus measures to take, the size and number of private capital, social capitalinvestment in high-speed rail construction will have significant limitations. Therefore,investment in high-speed rail should be government investment led. The most directway is striving for more and strongly support form national finance. At present, anurgent measure is to speed up the establishment of railway development fund, creatingthe conditions for private capital to enter the railway, as well as expanding the sourcesof funding for railway construction. In view of the local public goods characteristics ofrail and intercity rail, as the main and the direct regional railway externalitybeneficiaries, local government should bear the construction investment responsibility.Policy research on development of high-speed rail industry is a strong appliedsubject. the general rule that industrial economics reveals, is not the exact one-to-onecorrespondence with China’s national conditions and the requirements of the railwayindustry development decided by the human environment. There is always more or lessa difference between theoretical deduction and realistic choice. To high-speed rail,which combines the natural monopoly, public and commercial, social and profitablecharacters in one body, it must be difficult to divide the roles, responsibilities, rights andinterests, the criteria should have a certain degree of scalability and flexibility. Atpresent, in the world’s major countries and regions, the operation mechanism of railwaytransport management system is different from each other, without a single unifiedmode, because of differences in national conditions, cultural traditions. Using andrespecting for the general laws of economics at the same time, from the inherentrequirements of a particular historical, cultural and institutional environment for thedevelopment of high-speed rail industry, the paper focuses on combining the stage ofindustrial policy and industry in the long term development objectives, means of localpolicies and global integrated initiatives together to make the research more rational andmore targeted. Therefore, based on the analysis on institutional reform, regulation,technology innovation, regional distribution and financing policies, to ensure that thepolicies in different areas could format comprehensive effects, combining with China’snational conditions, road condition, this paper proposes a number of overall strategies. First, consider high-speed rail industry as one of the country’s development strategyfocus on, further play socialist system advantage that to set power do event. The secondis adhere to the innovation driven strategy, pay more attention to the original innovation,integrated innovation and the introduction of digestive absorption again innovation inhigh-speed rail technology, promote technology research and development resultsconverting to reality productivity, strengthen intellectual property protection to relatedcore technology. The third is to improve the comprehensive use and effectiveness levelof government industry policy tools. The fourth is to strengthen legislative construction,provide legal protection for promoting high-speed rail industry health ordereddevelopment. The fifth is to cultivate high-speed rail culture brand and build high-speedrail culture industry chain positively.As a new industry，high-speed rail industry is still in the process of growth, itsintegrated economic impact is continuing to ferment. Therefore, the study on thecountermeasures of the development of high-speed rail industry also needs to pursuefurther and develop in practice. |
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