A Study Of Legal Issues Over PPP Project Contract In China

Public-Private Partnership (hereinafter PPP) can be considered as a mode of cooperation between governments and social capital, aiming at providing goods or services for the public. Compared to the traditional mode, in which governmental fiscal expenditure is used on construction, PPP can change the traditional mode of financing, reduce the financial burden of local governments and improve the efficiency of construction of public facilities. It can also improve the level of public service provision, optimize the allocation of risks, and ultimately achieve the "win-win" objective for public interests and social capital.With the further expansion of urbanization in China, the demand for public infrastructure facilities construction and social services will increase substantially which will inevitably increase the financial pressure of local governments. PPP can effectively alleviate these problems. However, at its primary stage in China, there exist numerous problems in practice. First, governments lack the management experience of professional project. Second, the governing laws are enacted by different organizations, with the content conflicting with each other. Third, the investment of social capital is not stability and speculative. Forth, governments sometimes give too many illusive promises.Drawing lessons from foreign experience and basing on China’s national conditions, we can find out that various types of legal instruments of PPP are the most important links between the governments and the social capital which is an important guarantee for the smooth operation of project. This article introduces the definition, types and advantages of PPP, mainly discusses several important legal issues of PPP project contract such as:l.The legal nature of project contract; 2. Dispute settlement of project contract; 3. Subject choice of project contract, etc, and finally makes some reasonable suggestions.