At the beginning of September, the first trains on the second private high-speed railway line began in China. This line leads from HangZhou (chin. 杭州), the capital of the state of Zhejiang (chin. 浙江), to WenZhou (chin. 温州), the "Chinese hollow" of private companies, 276 km away. Trains travel on this way at a velocity of up to 350 km/h, reducing travel time between these 2 crucial business centers to 87 minutes. The railway line runs through respective cities, including YiWu (chin. 义乌), known as the "world capital of 1001 trifles".
Ticket prices on this line are to be based on marketplace mechanisms and will be adapted to the class and travel distance. The task was implemented in the framework of a private-state partnership, and construction started in 2020. A peculiar company was established to implement the project, in which 51% of shares are owned by the private corp BaiSheng United Group (chin. 百盛联合集团), and the remainder belongs to state companies:
- China Railway corp (chin. 中国铁路总公司),
- Zhejiang Communications Investment Group (chin. 浙江交通投资集团) and
- local authorities of administrative areas through which the railway line runs.
The consortium is led by BaiSheng, which acts as the general contractor of the project, and the construction of the line was commissioned by China Raiwalay Corporation. According to an agreement signed by BaiSheng with the provincial government of ZheJiang, the HangZhou-WenZhou railway line operates on the basis of the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT), with a 34-year period of cooperation, with the anticipation of extension. This includes a four-year construction period and a 30-year operation period, during which profits are shared with investors in accordance with the agreed terms. During the period of operation, the government will transfer all gross to the consortium. After the contract expires, the task and its assets will be transferred to the government free of charge.
As mentioned at the outset, it is already the second private high-speed railway line in China. The first, 266.9 km long, leads from HangZhou (chin. 杭州) through ShaoXing (chin. 绍兴) to TaiZhou (chin. 台州). It was launched in 2022, besides after 4 years of construction. In this case, 51% of the shares in the task have a consortium of private companies run by FoSun Group (chin. 复星集团).
The Chinese government has been trying hard since 2015 to attract private capital to participate in large infrastructure projects. At the beginning of this year, the National improvement and improvement Commission of the PRC (NDRC, chin. 国家发展和改革委员会, established in 2003) made recommendations for 3,556 private-state cooperation projects in areas specified as high-speed railways, airports, highways and atomic power. The full value of these projects exceeds 5 trillion RMB (about PLN 2.73 trillion).
Based on:
- finance.sina.com.cn;
- baijiahao.baidu.com;
Author: 梁安基 Andrzej Z. Liang, 上海 Shanghai, 中国 China
Email: [email protected]
Editorial: Leszek B.
Email: [email protected]
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