(Yicai Global) Nov. 7 -- China should support private companies to undertake major scientific and technological strategic tasks to improve the county’s policy environment and promote the development of private investment, according to China’s state planner. 

The National Development and Reform Commission said in a document today that China needs to encourage private capital to build innovation platforms such as industrial innovation centers, support the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy, and encourage platform companies to speed up the construction of key projects in the fields including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, operating systems, and processors.

China should support private investment in the 102 key projects from the 14th Five-Year Plan, including railway, expressway, ports and related docks, and stations and service facilities, the NDRC noted.

Private firms should be encouraged to hike investment in solar and wind power generation, biomass power generation, energy storage, and other energy-saving and carbon-cutting fields and to attract private capital to build and operate infrastructure projects with a mixed-ownership reform bringing in strategic investors and specialized managers.

The country should introduce subsidies and loans with discounted interest rates when making government investments to support qualified private investment projects, the NDRC added. China should also provide financial guarantees to qualified private investment projects in fields such as traffic and transport, food and beverages, accommodation, and tourism, in accordance with marketization principles to increase the scale of the financing guarantee business of private companies.

China is expected to push for financial institutions to accept different repayment methods for private investment projects and increase debt financing support for private firms, as well as promote the innovation of financial institutions’ products and services and cut interest rates of private companies’ loans and related expenses, the NDRC pointed out.

State-owned enterprises should be encouraged to carry out equity integration, establish strategic cooperation with private firms, and invest in new projects in key areas by means of joint investment and mergers and acquisitions, the watchdog noted, adding that they should also facilitate pilot programs of qualified high-tech companies’ foreign debt quotas.

Editor: Martin Kadiev