Study On The Legal Regulation Of PPP Financing Of Urban Public Utility Projects In China

Urban public utilities play a fundamental role in economic development.The promotion of urbanization urgently cries for improving the speed and the efficiency of urban public utility projects' construction,and a stable source of funds.The PPP financing mode of urban public utilities projects,which combines the public welfare with the profit requirements of social capital,has become a new financing mode vigorously promoted by the government.PPP financing mode is widely used in the field of urban public utilities,however,because of its imperfect regulatory system,it is difficult to play an effective role in guiding and regulating.Therefore,on the basis of combing the views of scholars and legal norms,the following conclusions are drawn:legal connotation of PPP financing mode of urban public utilities projects can be divided into narrow sense and broad sense,and the broad one is the legislative tendency in the future.It is also clear that the coexistence of monopoly and competition,cooperation and benefit sharing are the main characteristics of PPP financing for urban public utilities projects.Through sorting out the theoretical basis and mechanism elements of PPP financing,it is concluded that the application of PPP financing is of great significance in public utilities.At the same time,the necessity of legal regulation is clear that the characteristics of public-private cooperation require the rational sharing of risks;the diversity of subjects requires their respective positions to be clear;the public welfare of projects requires the strengthening of the protection of public interests.It also emphasizes the fact that the particularity of PPP financing and the particularity of legal regulation for municipal public utilities projects.Due to this,higher requirements have been put forward.Contradiction with it,the existing legal regulations have the following problems:the legal framework is imperfect;the main status of government,social capital and the public have not been defined clearly;the risk sharing is unreasonable;the supervision is lack of independence and integrity;the existing institutions have formed the obstacles of dispute resolution.Combining with the successful regulatory experience of other countries,first,we should construct a complete legal framework centered on the Municipal Public Utilities Law.On the basis of general laws such as the Law on Tendering and Bidding and the Law on Government Procurement,various regulations of the public utilities authorities will be a supplement to this framework,the Contract Guides for various industries will guide the formulation of PPP agreements.Second,we should define the status of each participant clearly.We should recognize the government's contract supervision status;recognize the legitimacy of government guarantees and clarify the status of government partners;guarantee the status of social capital partners by introducing administrative accountability mechanism;guarantee the status of public consumers by implementing social supervision.Third,according to certain principles,the risks should be initially allocated before implementation and adjusted after implementation.The risk is also shared and constrained by the provisions of the contract and the legal supervision.Fourth,under the principle of"separation of government and supervisors",the independent regulator is responsible for the supervision of contracts,finance,price,quality and so on,so as to realize the whole process coverage of supervision.Finally,in order to expand the ways of dispute resolution,both sides should be allowed to determine solutions through consultation without violating mandatory provisions.At the same time,non-litigation methods such as arbitration is advocated to put to use so that the professionalism and efficiency of settlement can be improved.