Lead:
As China's economy moves from high-speed growth to high-quality development, restructuring policies play an increasingly significant role in promoting economic restructuring, responding to complex risk events, and achieving balanced regional development. In the face of complex governance challenges, how can we transform restructuring policies into efficient governance tools and achieve "turning stones into gold"?
Huang Qifan answers this question in his book Restructuring and Breakthrough. Huang Qifan is a well-known economist in China, and was the deputy secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and mayor. When Huang Qifan took office as vice mayor of Chongqing, he faced a series of thorny events, including unfinished buildings and debt restructuring of construction projects.
"Thinking about the problem from the fundamentals, fundamentally analyzing the reasons, looking for solutions, and then supplementing the idea of asset restructuring to solve the financial problem, a long-term, large-scale and extensive problems can be successfully solved."
*This article is excerpted from "Restructuring and Breakthrough", written by Huang Qifan.
Friday, October 12, 2001 was the day I took office as Vice Mayor of Chongqing. At that time, Chongqing's GDP (gross domestic product) was only about 190 billion yuan, and its fiscal revenue was less than 20 billion yuan.
In the year since I took office, many urgent and difficult things have come one after another, testing me as a "new official." Thanks to the restructuring ideas and practical experience formed over the years, I do not shy away from contradictions, rise to the occasion, see the moves, and resolve the contradictions one by one. Looking back to this day, the past is still vivid and evocative.
First, the gold is unfinished
An unfinished building, 36 petitions
The Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government are adjacent to the office. On the day of registration, I passed by the compound of the municipal party committee and saw two or three hundred people surrounded by the door, all of them in black, obviously petitioners. After settling myself in, I casually asked, "Where did these petitioners come from?" Someone immediately replied: "It's a petitioner from the central garden of the subway." ”
About a month later, one afternoon, I was working in my unit when I suddenly heard a commotion at the entrance of the city hall. When I inquired, I was still a petitioner in the central garden of the subway.
It's been a month since the matter was resolved, why hasn't it been resolved? So, I called the deputy director of the General Office, who was in charge of stability at the time, to the office. "This Metro Center Garden is a real estate project that started construction in 1992 and includes high-rise residential, office and retail buildings," he said. In 1997, the developer's funding chain broke and it became an unfinished building, with more than 1,000 households trapped in it. In order to discuss the law, in the following four years, they petitioned the municipal party committee and the municipal government 36 times.
The relevant deputy mayor and secretary general of the municipal government have held no less than 20 coordination meetings, large and small, and everyone feels that it is very tricky and cannot come up with an effective solution, so they can only temporarily persuade the people to go home. But if the problem is not solved, the people will come again after a while, and this repeated situation has become a big problem. ”
After listening to his brief introduction, I preliminarily judged that this was a backlog of letters and visits caused by bad debts in an unfinished building, so I went on to ask: "According to the information you know, is there a serious capital 'running away' in this project, that is, has the developer used bank loans to speculate in stocks and gamble, resulting in a loss of the project?" Does it constitute a criminal case? The comrade replied: "The amount of development investment is roughly balanced with the amount of physical goods, and the developer's funds are basically precipitated in the project." ”
The developers are playing "karate"
I immediately decided: "You inform the relevant units of the project, including the bank, the construction unit, the housing management bureau, the Chongqing Municipal Construction Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Construction Committee), as well as the comrades of the court and the public security, that the meeting will be held at half past seven tonight, and I will hear the situation first." ”
At half past seven in the evening, as soon as I entered the conference room, I saw that the room was full of more than 70 people. I just said "related units" before, how can there be so many related units? It turned out that this matter was coordinated more than 20 times, and all units and departments from all sides were involved, and all of them became relevant units.
Seeing this, I will let everyone speak separately and report on the ins and outs of the dispute in the subway center garden.
It turned out that the developer of the subway center garden was a small boss, playing "karate", and its own capital was insufficient, and it completely relied on debt to build buildings. This project is located in Jiefangbei, with a total construction area of nearly 100,000 square meters. In 1992, the cost of the project in Chongqing was much lower than that in the coastal areas, at only more than 2,000 yuan per square meter, and the entire project cost more than 200 million yuan to complete. So how does this little boss work?
First of all, land acquisition and relocation should be compensated. He told the residents: "For the time being, you will not be compensated, you can borrow from relatives and friends, and after three years the house is built, I will give you a new house." During the three-year transition period, I will give you a high interest rate of 15% per year on the relocation fee. "Since they have money and can live in new houses in the future, the residents are naturally happy to move. Moreover, in the first 3 years, everyone did get high interest, so everything was fine.
Second, the construction of the project costs money, so he used the land as collateral to borrow money from the bank. The bank promised to lend him 164 million yuan, but the interest rate must be 15 percent, and at the beginning of the loan, the interest was deducted for one year, that is, more than 24 million yuan. He was hungry and immediately agreed, and got 140 million yuan from the bank.
In the end, with a shortfall of more than 60 million yuan, he engaged in the sale of houses and leasebacks, promising a 20 per cent rate of return, which was actually a disguised illegal fund-raising. As a result, more than 800 home buyers got on the set.
When he barely scraped together 200 million yuan, he started construction. However, when the house was just built to the seventh or eighth floor, more than 100 million yuan was spent on the construction of the building, and tens of millions of yuan were spent on the high interest paid to the evicted people, the tenants who sold the house, and the bank, so the funds quickly bottomed out. In 1997, the bank sued the developer for two consecutive years and applied to the court to freeze its assets. In this way, the developer has completely become a poor egg. The high interest rate of the common people is gone, so they will settle accounts with him. Later, he found that it was useless to look for him, so he began to petition the government. The project involves more than 1,000 households, more than 3,000 people, and as long as 10 per cent of the dispatch is carried out, more than 300 people, which is enough to "surround" the municipal government. Therefore, since 1998, there has been no interruption of the collection of visits to the central garden of the subway.
The usual approach doesn't work
In fact, the nature of this matter is very clear, that is, the project owner deceived the people and cheated the bank. According to conventional thinking, there are two ways. The first is to control the developer and force the developer to repay the money. But now the developer has no money, and it is useless to catch it, and the dead button still can't be untied.
Second, for the sake of social stability, the government will pay for it. However, the fiscal revenue in the municipal budget that year was less than 10 billion yuan, and the finances were already tight, and there was no money to cover them. Besides, the government can't do that if it has the money, because it doesn't make sense. Since neither path can be taken, things are frozen. Everyone wanted to solve it, but they couldn't do anything, and they couldn't break the situation after more than 20 coordination meetings. All parties are glued, and there is no way.
The only way to break the deadlock is to reorganize
As I listened to what you had to say, I thought about it. The Metro Center Garden is located in the best area of Chongqing, and if a 100,000-square-meter house can be built, it can be sold for more than 400 million yuan at that time, which is worth the money. However, the problem is that more than half of the more than 200 million yuan that the developers have scraped together has paid all kinds of high interest, and they are still in arrears of 164 million yuan in the principal of bank loans, 120 million yuan in compensation for demolition and relocation households, 120 million yuan in the purchase of houses sold to tenants, and 30 million yuan in construction unit construction costs, plus more than 60 million yuan in arrears of bank interest and interest and rent from the people since 1997, totaling about 370 million yuan. At the same time, to build a good house, it will cost 60 million yuan in the follow-up. If someone takes over, a total of 430 million yuan needs to be invested, and more than 400 million yuan can be recovered after the house is sold.
Restructuring pursues a win-win situation for all parties, and if the interests of any party are seriously damaged, the restructuring cannot be pushed. Specific to this project, the strategic restructurer is a "lifesaver", if not to make a lot of money, at least to be profitable; Bank loans are national assets, and they cannot be lost; It is not easy for ordinary people to make money, and they cannot be allowed to bear bad debts. Following this logic, I came up with a solution.
First, the principal of bank loans should be recovered, but the high interest rate will be eliminated. In the face of the real estate developers with empty gloves and white wolves, the banks are lending usury in violation of regulations, and they are still engaged in "cutting off debts", which is not standardized, and should be corrected and punished. Moreover, in order to maintain social stability, the proceeds from the auction of unfinished buildings should give priority to paying off the debts of the common people and the engineering team. In that case, the principal repayment ratio of the bank's $164 million loan may be less than 10%.
Therefore, I told the bank that this enterprise is a "food" enterprise, and if it is restructured, the bank may still recover the principal and the normal interest prescribed by the state, so don't expect to charge high interest. On that day, after careful discussion, the bank accepted the 100% repayment of principal and interest.
Secondly, the $30 million owed to the construction unit must be repaid in full, otherwise there will be a cascade of wage arrears. In this regard, the construction unit is of course satisfied.
Third, the 120 million yuan compensation and house purchase money of the people will be repaid in full, but the high interest rate of 15%~20% cannot be counted. According to the central government's repayment policy of controlling the "three chaos" in the financial sector, the tenants who sell the house can only repay the principal. The demolished households will be repaid according to the compensation plus the bank's statutory interest. Therefore, if the people have received 15%~20% interest for 3 years, then it must be deducted from the compensation. Overall, the part returned to the people, with principal and interest, is about 100 million yuan.
After these three subtractions, the project debt has been "reduced" from 370 million yuan to 210 million yuan. The strategic reorganizer only needs to pay 210 million yuan to obtain the property rights, and then spend more than 60 million yuan to build the house, and the total cost is only 270 million yuan. When the built house is sold, it should be able to sell for 300 million ~ 400 million yuan, which is generally profitable, and the reorganizer will naturally have motivation.
This "hot potato" state-owned enterprise should be taken first
The idea of restructuring is set, and the next most important thing is to find someone to take over. It stands to reason that it is profitable to deal with unfinished buildings, and if there is a private enterprise owner who is willing to take the lead, he must let the private enterprise do it first. But at that time, no one believed that there was "gold" in the unfinished building, and they all thought that it was a "hot potato" and avoided it. Otherwise, the problem would have been solved long ago, and the people would not have had to petition for years and months, and the city government would not have had to hold meetings again and again to coordinate.
In fact, such a mess with many contradictions and complex problems can only be "universalized" by letting state-owned enterprises take over. At that time, the person in charge of Chongqing Urban Construction Investment (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Chongqing Urban Construction Investment (Group) Co., Ltd. sat across from me. He also just joined the urban investment company. I said to him: "If you pay the 210 million yuan, you will take over the real estate tomorrow and repay the 100 million yuan owed to more than 1,000 households before the Spring Festival." "The person in charge listened to my instructions and looked surprised, obviously unwilling to wade into the troubled waters. He said: "Mayor Huang, you don't understand the situation...... I interrupted him: "I didn't understand in the past, but now I understand, you just do what you instruct!" ”
He wanted to say something, but when I said this, it was difficult for me to speak again in the face of me, the new deputy mayor. The others stopped talking, but whispered to each other.
In just over an hour, I made such a decision, and in retrospect, many people must have felt that it was a rash and even absurd decision at the time.
The ending is all happy
The matter was decided in mid-November 2001. In the following month, 100 million yuan owed to the people was distributed to more than 1,000 households.
In January 2002, when the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress was closing, the demolition households in the central garden of the subway came to the city government again. They sent a plaque to thank the city government for helping them get justice, but they had fulfilled their wish for many years! It was their last visit, and the matter was uneventful.
There was a bit of drama in what happened later. In fact, the city investment company did not really take out 210 million yuan in cash. To pay off the 100 million yuan of the people, of course, the urban investment company directly paid for it. However, because of the change in the main body of the debt, the bank has great confidence in the new owner of the bank, and is not in a hurry to recover the principal of the loan immediately, and is even willing to lend the company another 10 million yuan to help it build the building, so that the company can repay the bank after the sale of the houses is realized. The 30 million yuan in arrears to the construction unit for the project was not in a hurry to ask for money, but only asked to continue to undertake the project, so that the construction unit finally received much more than 30 million yuan. Therefore, what the urban investment company really needs to pay immediately is 100 million yuan for the people. The city investment company also made a lot of money by disposing of this unfinished building project. In the end, it became a happy thing for all.
Such a specific reorganization operation has resolved a long-pending backlog of petition cases, which has not only shared the worries of the municipal party committee and the municipal government, but also directed the state-owned investment platform to rescue the suffering, showing due responsibility.
A big breakthrough from point to surface
In fact, at that time, there were more than 70 unfinished buildings in the main city of Chongqing, such as the central garden of the subway, which were all "hard bones" that were difficult to bite, accounting for the majority of the more than 120 "four-long projects". They have accumulated more than 20 billion yuan in bad bank debts and a large number of social contradictions.
From 2001 to 2002, when you stood on the roof of the Chongqing Marriott Hotel, you would find that in the most prosperous area of Chongqing, there were four or five unfinished buildings around almost every high-rise building. The Metro Center Garden is just one of the ordinary examples, but its successful disposal serves as a good example. Since then, state-owned enterprises have begun to intervene in the disposal of unfinished buildings.
When we saw that state-owned enterprises had dealt with more than 10 unfinished buildings, private enterprises also found that the unfinished buildings were not all "hot potatoes", and there was also "gold" in the disposal process, so they followed up, and later even some foreign-funded enterprises such as Morgan Stanley also got involved. In the following two or three years, Chongqing's unfinished buildings were quickly digested through debt restructuring, and finally turned into a beautiful cityscape.
Second, the urban infrastructure supporting fees are raised
The standard of supporting fee has not been adjusted for 15 years
When I first arrived in Chongqing, I heard that the city's financial volume was very small, and in 2000 the general budget revenue of the local government was only about 8.7 billion yuan, and the mobile financial resources were also very weak, and the total land transfer fee and urban infrastructure supporting fees were only 300 million yuan a year.
At that time, Chongqing had about 10 million square meters of real estate under construction every year, and only 100 million yuan was charged for urban supporting fees, which was a world of difference compared with Shanghai's annual scale of tens of billions of yuan. At that time, I thought there were two problems here: first, Chongqing's supporting fee standard was too low, about 44 yuan per square meter, even if it was fully levied, it would be more than 400 million yuan a year; Second, the management of the right to reduce or reduce supporting fees is not lenient, the operation is not standardized, and the relevant commissions and bureaus often operate in a disorderly manner in the name of reducing the burden. As a result, the actual amount of supporting fees collected in 2000 was only $116 million.
One day in early November 2001, more than half a month after I arrived in Chongqing, I was approached by the then director of the Municipal Construction Committee to report to me. He complained: "Chongqing's urban fee standard was set in 1986, and it has not been adjusted for 15 years, which is already significantly low. The Urban Construction Committee proposed to adjust the standards two years ago, but repeated studies in various aspects have not reached a conclusion. I asked, "Why can't it be settled, what is the crux of the problem?" He said: "There is a general belief that the bid adjustment will affect the development environment and push up housing prices, so most people do not approve of it." At the same time, some people believe that on the basis of the original eight units, several more units should be added to participate in the distribution. As a result, everyone fell into a quarrel and did not move for two years. ”
The pricing of the package fee should follow the logic of the market
I told him: "The city supporting fee is about 44 yuan / square meter, the standard is low, you don't increase your income by raising the standard, but staring at a piece of existing 'small cake', everyone cut and cut, how can it be evenly divided?" It's unbelievable that such a little money is not enough for 8 units, and there are a few more. ”
In fact, this is a mistake in the pricing logic of the city supporting fee. The supporting fees for urban infrastructure are levied according to the construction area of the construction project, and are specially used for the construction of urban roads and bridges, public transportation, water and gas supply, landscaping, environmental sanitation and other facilities, and are an important channel for local governments to raise funds for the construction of municipal public facilities. If the standard of supporting fees is too low, then the supporting facilities such as urban water, electricity, transportation, fire safety, schools and hospitals cannot keep up, and no matter how good the house is, it will not be able to sell at a good price; On the other hand, if the standards are appropriately raised and the urban infrastructure is improved, then both developers and ordinary people can benefit.
There is a market logic in this, and the pricing of the supporting fee should follow this logic, not the other way around. According to the law of the real estate industry, the urban supporting fee should generally be equivalent to 6% of the house price. In 1986, the housing price in Chongqing was only a few hundred yuan per square meter, and the supporting fee standard was set at about 44 yuan per square meter, which was of course no problem and conformed to the law of reality. But now in 2001, the city's housing prices have risen to 1,700 yuan per square meter, and according to the standard of 6 percent, the supporting fee should be about 100 yuan per square meter. Considering the future development factors, the standard of 110 yuan/square meter is reasonable.
After hearing this set of theories, this comrade suddenly opened his mouth and hurriedly ran back to study it. Soon a report was sent, requesting that the supporting fee standard be adjusted to 110 yuan per square meter, and submitted to the standing committee of the municipal government for consideration. On November 4, the proposal to raise the standard of the supporting fee was discussed, and the director of the price bureau first raised an objection, his reason was that the price of housing will also rise if the supporting fee rises. I analyzed: "According to economic logic, the current Chongqing city supporting fee should have been charged 110 yuan per square meter. The big cities around Chongqing, such as Chengdu, Changsha, Wuhan and Xi'an, have a supporting fee of about 100 yuan/square meter, but Chongqing is still the standard 15 years ago, that is, about 44 yuan/square meter in 1986, which is very unreasonable. If you don't raise the bid, then the government should have overcharged about 66 yuan per square meter, and it will fall into the pockets of real estate developers. Even if the real estate developer makes more money, it will not drive down the price of the house.
However, if the government has no money in its hands, then it is powerless to do things for the people, and the urban facilities will not be in place, and the people will not be able to live normally even if they live in new houses, so they will complain. If the standard is raised and the real estate developer pays the money that should be paid, it will not rashly raise the house price, and the market has the law of the market. In addition, if the government gets this money, then 100% of it will be used for public infrastructure construction, which can effectively improve the urban environment and people's lives. When the director of the price bureau heard that it made sense, he turned to support the price adjustment plan.
The plan was adopted on the same day and implemented the next day
The discussion lasted for a week, and on November 10, everyone agreed on the price adjustment standard, the new distribution principle and the relevant opinions on strengthening the management of the reduction and exemption of supporting fees. On November 13, the Standing Committee of the Municipal Government deliberated and approved the plan. After everyone voted, I deliberately said: "The increase in the supporting fee is a major price adjustment, which should be passed today and announced tomorrow." Otherwise, if it drags on for a month or two, real estate developers will hear the news and will pile up to approve the development project before raising the price, which will inevitably cause the loss of government fees, and even gray transactions may occur, inducing corruption. "The mayor was very supportive of my opinion, and submitted it to the municipal party committee for approval after signing it on the same day.
On November 14, 2001, the bid adjustment plan was officially implemented, and the supporting fee for Chongqing city was adjusted from 44 yuan/square meter to 110 yuan/square meter, an increase of about 66 yuan per square meter. At the same time, the control system of relevant government departments not allowing them to arbitrarily reduce or reduce supporting fees has been strengthened. The following year, the city's supporting fee revenue soared to nearly 1 billion yuan, which greatly supported the construction of municipal infrastructure at that time. As the "cake" has become bigger, the re-cutting has become smoother, and the units that originally wanted to participate in the distribution have also fulfilled their wishes, and the distribution ratio of each unit has also been well balanced.
Around 2015, Chongqing's annual general public budget revenue was more than 200 billion yuan, and it may seem that an increase of 1 billion yuan is not unusual. However, in 2002, Chongqing's general budget revenue of the local government was only about 10 billion yuan, which can be described as "food finance", so it was a great deal to increase the income of 1 billion yuan through the reasonable adjustment of the city's supporting fees at that time, and the municipal government suddenly had a lot more money on hand.
3. Debt restructuring of Lijiatuo Bridge
Rong Zhijian is here to collect debts
On November 12, 2001, when I was studying the issue of urban infrastructure fees, Rong Zhijian, chairman of CITIC Pacific Group, wrote me a letter. In the letter, he wrote that in 1997 he invested US$100 million, or 800 million yuan, in Chongqing to build the Lijiatuo Bridge under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model, and that he had agreed with the Chongqing municipal government at that time to operate the bridge for 20 years, with a fixed annual return of 14.5 percent after tax. For the first two years of the project, the municipality made regular payments, but he had not received money since 2000. I worked with Rong Zhijian when I was working in Shanghai. When he heard that I had been transferred to Chongqing, he wrote to remind him.
After reading Rong Zhijian's letter, I couldn't help frowning. At that time, this kind of BOT financing project with a fixed rate of return was very popular in local infrastructure construction. When the government and enterprises sign contracts, they often promise a fixed rate of return according to the bank's benchmark interest rate plus a 20-year discount rate of 3.5%, plus 2%~3% of the investment profit.
Generally speaking, a fixed rate of return of 10%~12% per annum is reasonable. However, the conditions of the Lijiatuo Bridge BOT project are somewhat harsh, with an annual fixed return of 14.5% after tax, that is, around 17% before tax.
In other words, Chongqing has to pay 130 million yuan to CITIC Pacific every year, and it is paid for 20 consecutive years. At that time, just after the Asian financial crisis, the People's Bank of China had cut interest rates eight times in a row, and the interest rate on medium and long-term loans was only 5%. In this way, Chongqing is too much of a loss.
So, I asked the director of the Municipal Construction Committee to ask about the ins and outs of the matter. Originally, the Lijiatuo Bridge was completed in 1997, and since then, about 14 million yuan has been collected in tolls every year, of which 4 million yuan is used to pay staff wages and various maintenance costs.
In 1998, when the municipal government paid the first 130 million yuan to CITIC Pacific, it was unable to come up with the money and had to borrow money from the bank to repay it. In 1999, other funds were diverted to make the repayment. By 2000, the funds were completely gone. By the end of 2001, the Chongqing municipal government owed 260 million yuan.
After figuring out the details, I immediately brought comrades from the Municipal Finance Bureau and other departments to do an internal special analysis together. If a bank borrows $800 million for a period of 20 years, the annual repayment of principal and interest at an annual interest rate of 5 per cent will be about $70 million. If the loan of 1 billion yuan is used to repay CITIC Pacific's principal of 800 million yuan and 260 million yuan in arrears in a lump sum, the annual repayment of principal and interest in the next 20 years will only be more than 80 million, far lower than the annual commitment of 130 million yuan to CITIC Pacific. In this case, it is better to borrow from banks and replace high-interest loans with low-interest loans, which can save 1 billion yuan in financing costs in 20 years.
Negotiate with Rong Zhijian
If the debt restructuring can be realized, the urban investment company can take over as the owner of the Lijiatuo Bridge. So, I went to the person in charge of the urban investment company and said: "Now I will send you to Hong Kong to negotiate with Rong Zhijian and give him two choices: first, we are willing to abide by the original promised interest, but we must pay off the principal of 800 million yuan and the arrears of 260 million yuan in arrears at one time, terminate the BOT agreement, and recover the rights and interests of the Lijiatuo Bridge;
Second, if we maintain the original investment model, we have to bring down the fixed rate of return, which is now 5% for the bank rate, plus the 20-year discount rate of 3.5%, plus a 2 percentage point profit margin, and we can accept a fixed rate of return after tax of 10.5%. ”
Subsequently, the city investment company went to Hong Kong to negotiate. CITIC Pacific finally chose the first option, accepting a lump sum repayment with interest, but requiring it to be repaid by the end of the year.
It has saved more than 1 billion yuan for Chongqing
When I received the news, I immediately went to the bank to borrow money. At that time, I was looking for the Chongqing branch of China Construction Bank. Due to the large amount of loans, the branch president made an urgent report to the head office, which mentioned that Huang Qifan, the newly appointed vice mayor of Chongqing, proposed a debt restructuring plan with a loan of 1 billion yuan to repay the Lijiatuo Bridge. After research, CCB's head office believed that the debt restructuring plan was risky and feasible, and quickly approved the loan request.
Although the loan funds were in place, I still had to exchange foreign currency, so I directly called the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to report the reason for communication, and received the support of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. In this way, by the end of December 2001, Chongqing settled its debt with CITIC Pacific.
This incident impressed the person in charge of the urban investment company, and later he often said: "Through the debt restructuring of the Lijiatuo Bridge project, Chongqing has saved more than 1 billion yuan in urban construction funds, and effectively avoided policy risks, which is indeed a wonderful move!" ”
Fourth, the public transport group was transformed into an enterprise
One day in early December 2001, I received a report on the restructuring of Chongqing Public Transport Group. The main leaders of the municipal party committee mentioned this matter to me, saying that the reform of the public transport group to an enterprise was not promoted smoothly enough, and it dragged on for two or three years, and no consensus was reached, and I was asked to grasp it.
Three major divisions have blocked reform
In the following 10 days, I read through the report on the transformation and restructuring of the bus group in the past two years to find the crux of the problem. In fact, there is no objection to the general direction of reform of the public transport group from government institutions to enterprises, and the differences are mainly concentrated in three aspects.
First, how to deal with the original loss? Due to the public welfare of urban public transport, Chongqing Public Transport Group had been losing money for five consecutive years, and the policy loss reached 550 million yuan. For this bad debt, the public transport group's opinion is to be financed and to promote reform after making up the registered capital. However, the city treasury did not have money, so it objected, arguing that the loss should not be borne by the treasury. The two sides insisted on their own words and argued endlessly.
Second, will the fare be adjusted after the change? Specifically, whether the price of the monthly pass should be increased, whether the discount for the elderly, the disabled, students, and military personnel will continue, and so on. One side believes that Chongqing public transport has not been adjusted for 10 years and should be adjusted; The other side believes that Chongqing's economy is backward and the people are very poor, so they cannot adjust the price, and if they want to adjust the price, they must hold a hearing. The public said that the public was reasonable, and the mother-in-law said that the mother-in-law was reasonable, and the price adjustment fell into a stalemate.
Third, how to resettle laid-off workers? It will cost 100 million yuan or 200 million yuan to resettle laid-off workers, but it is not clear who will pay for this money. In addition, after the reform of the bus group to the enterprise, there are still policy losses, so should the finance continue to subsidize? Everyone is also disagreeable.
Due to the inability to clarify these three problems, the reform of the bus group to the enterprise has been delayed again and again, delayed for more than two years.
Break down complex problems into simple ones
After sorting out the causes and consequences of hindering the reform of the bus group, it is not difficult to find that this complex problem can be broken down into three simple problems, and then after careful consideration, it is found that these three problems are actually not big problems. After thinking things clearly, on 20 December 2001, I presided over a special meeting and discussed three issues.
First, regarding the disposal of a loss of 550 million yuan, I believe that this is not a prerequisite for restructuring. At that time, the net assets of the bus group were 1.2 billion yuan, and since it had a loss of 550 million yuan, it would subtract 550 million yuan and register a new company with a capital of 650 million yuan. This can also work normally, so why wait for the financial department to make up for the loss before registering?
Second, regarding the fare adjustment, Chongqing's bus fares have not been adjusted in the past 10 years, and it is indeed time to adjust, but it must pass a hearing, and the society accepts it and then reports to the municipal government for approval. At the same time, the original policy of benefiting the people adheres to the "three unchanged", that is, the free ride policy for retired employees over 60 years old remains unchanged, the free ticket policy for demobilized soldiers remains unchanged, and the preferential policies enjoyed by students and the disabled remain unchanged, and the preferential policies cannot be reduced due to fare adjustments.
Third, on the issue of laid-off resettlement of workers, the policies and money that the government should give and the money that should be taken shall be implemented in accordance with the regulations, and the public transport group can transfer and realize part of the assets to offset bad debts and fill the social security gap. At the same time, the bus franchise includes national resources such as company cards and route cards, which can be injected into the bus company free of charge as intangible assets, and the new company cards and route cards in the future urban development will be auctioned in a unified manner, and the proceeds can be used for the construction of bus stations.
As for whether the policy-based loss subsidy after the restructuring will be interrupted due to the restructuring, which everyone is worried about, a transitional period can be given first, and the original five-year target of turning around losses can be continued, and the original policy of subsidizing 70 million yuan per year can be continued in the remaining three years.
In this way, using reorganization thinking, a problem that had dragged on for two or three years was solved. In the following week, everyone reached a consensus on reform and formed a restructuring plan.
The results of the restructuring were immediate
At the end of 2001, the reform of Chongqing Public Transport Group was officially launched. In March 2002, Chongqing Public Transport Holding Group was established. In 2003, the group turned losses into profits, made up for the arrears of employee pension insurance and other benefits, and entered a benign development track.
After more than 10 years of development, Chongqing Public Transport Group has taken on a new look, and has grown from a small enterprise with net assets of less than 700 million yuan, an asset-liability ratio of more than 90 percent, and only 2,000 dilapidated vehicles at the time of its establishment, to a large group with net assets of more than 10 billion yuan, an asset-liability ratio of less than 40 percent, an annual profit of more than 100 million yuan, and tens of thousands of new vehicles. The smooth progress of the reform has made it a bus company that ranks among the top in the country.
5. Implement the "Life Project"
5 buses a year overturned the cliff
The year 2002 was a year of frequent traffic accidents in Chongqing, when five long-distance buses tumbled off cliffs, killing and injuring hundreds of people. Every time a major traffic accident occurs, the city holds a meeting to circulate criticism, conduct safety inspections, and deal with overloading and overloading, and then punish a group of cadres. Before they could catch their breath here, another accident occurred over there, followed by a meeting, a major inspection, and the investigation and punishment of cadres...... And so a vicious circle.
Install crash barriers on dangerous road sections
In August 2002, in order to complete the finishing work of "8 hours in Chongqing" assigned by the main leaders of the Municipal Party Committee, I went deep into the districts and counties to investigate. In the middle of the night, the car drove on the road to Wuxi County, and both sides were full of cliffs tens or even hundreds of meters deep. I strongly feel that 87% of Chongqing's jurisdiction is mountainous, thousands of kilometers of roads are built on cliffs, and hundreds of thousands of vehicles drive on such roads every day.
It is difficult to cure this problem by relying only on system design, ideological work, or management requirements. Because it's not a matter of subjective responsibility, in order to solve the problem, you have to work on the infrastructure hardware.
So, the person in charge of the Chongqing Municipal Transportation Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Transportation Commission, renamed the Chongqing Municipal Transportation Bureau in 2018) who followed me said: "The anti-collision guardrail of the expressway can effectively reduce traffic accidents.
Last month, I went down to the grassroots level to investigate in Qianjiang District, and found that some important secondary roads are equipped with such anti-collision guardrails, and I should make up my mind to promote this measure. He thinks it's a good idea.
Solve the financial problem with the idea of restructuring
When I returned to the main city, I immediately convened the relevant departments to study the problem, and proposed that within two years, all dangerous sections of high-grade highways in the city should be installed with anti-collision guardrails, and that they should be grasped as a "life project." But the key to getting this right is where the money comes from.
At that time, we estimated that the cost of building a one-kilometer anti-collision guardrail was about 140,000 yuan, and if all the steep slopes of the cliffs with a height difference of more than 6 meters were installed, the city would need to build about 5,000 kilometers, and it was estimated that 7.8 billion yuan would be invested. So where does the money come from? I decided to raise money in four ways. The construction cost of each kilometer of anti-collision guardrail is subsidized by the municipal government of 40,000 yuan, and the Chongqing High-grade Highway Construction Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the high-tech investment department), which is responsible for road repair, bears 40,000 yuan, and the district and county governments bear 40,000 yuan. In terms of building anti-collision guardrails, the district and county governments are very active, because the handling of major traffic accidents follows the principle of territoriality, and once an accident occurs, the district and county magistrates will be punished.
However, there is still a fee of 20,000 yuan per kilometer that has not been settled, what should I do? We consider the insurance company to bear, the reason is: long-distance passenger vehicles and passengers have purchased compulsory motor vehicle traffic accident liability insurance (referred to as compulsory traffic insurance), if a major accident occurs, the insurance company often has to compensate millions of yuan to tens of millions of yuan, in the event of a major malignant accident, even to compensate hundreds of millions of yuan, the insurance company to participate in the construction of anti-collision guardrails, is "spend money to buy safety", from the cost of benefits are also cost-effective.
Moreover, the government does not force enterprises to pay, but acts according to market rules, that is, when organizing the bidding for Chongqing's highway passenger insurance business, it will bear 20,000 yuan per kilometer of anti-collision guardrail fees as a precondition, and enterprises will participate in the bidding if they are willing to bear it.
In this way, by thinking about the problem from the fundamentals, fundamentally analyzing the causes, finding solutions, and then using the idea of asset restructuring to resolve the financial problems, a long-term, large-scale and wide-ranging problem can be successfully solved. This way of working is also the key to my ability to solve problems in Chongqing.
The Ministry of Communications came to Chongqing for an on-site meeting
As a result of the rational design of the scheme, the installation of the anti-collision barrier proceeded smoothly, and within two years, the installation of the anti-collision barrier on more than 5,000 kilometres of dangerous road sections was completed. Later, this measure was transformed into Chongqing's road safety standards, and all new high-grade highways in Chongqing, and even dangerous sections of roads leading to townships and villages, have been popularized with anti-collision guardrails, with a total length of more than 10,000 kilometers. As a result, Chongqing has put an end to cliff rollover accidents, even if a vehicle hits the guardrail, it will be bounced back and will not fall off the cliff. Of course, if the guardrail is hit, the company to which the vehicle belongs and the driver have to compensate for the loss of the guardrail repair, and in practice, this life-saving money has not been repaid, and they are willing to pay because the guardrail saved their lives.
There was also a coincidence about the crash barrier. At the junction of Wushan and Fengjie, there is a section of road called Longwangliu, which is more than 1,200 meters above sea level. On the 29th day of the lunar month, a year before the installation of the crash barrier, a car driving back from Shenzhen overturned a cliff on this section of the road, causing a casualty accident. After the installation of the "Life Project", there was another accident in the same location, but the crash barrier blocked the bus on the edge of the cliff, thus saving the lives of a carload of people.
Later, in response to the large-scale installation of anti-collision guardrails on secondary roads in mountainous areas, the Ministry of Communications organized an on-site meeting in Chongqing to promote it nationwide, which became an experience in improving the safety of the transportation system in the mountainous areas of the country.
Sixth, eliminate the disturbing blockage
One thorny question after another, I, the new deputy mayor, were very busy. On December 30, 2001, one more day, it will be my first New Year's Day in Chongqing. I decided to drive out and around on my own.
The car drove onto the Huanghuayuan Bridge and prepared to drive to Jiangbei. The bridge is a two-way six-lane bridge, and at first, the car ran smoothly, but it didn't take long to get stuck on the bridge. Across the road, the direction of the incoming car is also blocked. It seemed that I couldn't move for half an hour, so I simply parked the car on the side of the road and came out to see the situation. It turns out that although the Huanghuayuan Bridge and the road in Jiangbei are two-way six-lane, the connection between the bridge and the road in Jiangbei is about 500 meters away from two lanes and only four lanes, forming a "bottleneck".
I asked the driver friend next to me to know that it has been blocked every day, every month, and it has been blocked for 4 years!
Walking near the blockage, I found that the "stuck neck" was a raised hill bag. Halfway up the mountain, there is a small house with a toilet on one side and a storage room on the other. It was this little house that blocked the road for 4 whole years. The small house is connected to a nearby school, and at first glance you can tell that it is the "tail" left by the relocation.
After finding out the situation, the next day, December 31, 2001, I summoned the director of the Construction Committee, the director of the Planning Bureau, the director of the Land Bureau, and the person in charge of Jiangbei District to the office. I said, "Do you know that this place has been blocked for 4 years?" ”
They all said, "Yes." ”
I said, "Seeing that the road is blocked like that, why are you not coordinated?" ”
They said: "The house belongs to a higher vocational college under the Municipal Commission of Commerce, and it is the 'tail' left by the demolition." For this small house, the opinion of the Municipal Land Bureau was to relocate the site nearby and compensate another 16 million yuan, but the school asked for 60 million yuan, and the two sides could not reach an agreement after several meetings. In this matter, the leaders in charge of commerce and the business committee supported the school, and the comrades of Chengjiankou were very embarrassed. So, after a few years of coordination, it became what it is now. ”
I was so angry that I slapped the table: "Have you ever studied the 'three stresses'?" What have you learned? To study the 'three stresses,' it is necessary to go deep into the mind and heart to see action, and it is absolutely not about saying one thing and doing another! What does it mean to talk about politics? The common people have been blocked for 4 years, not by accident, but every day, but the cadres turn a blind eye, this is not politics! What does it mean to talk about the big picture? Leading cadres should have a minimum of systems engineering concepts, the whole road is two-way six lanes, just that place is four lanes, two lanes are missing, is there a little basic knowledge of systems engineering? Is there a bit of a big picture? What does it mean to talk about righteousness? How can a public institution be righteous if it completely ignores the overall situation, threatens the government and harms the people, and the government still fights with each other and ignores the fact that the people have been blocked for four years? ”
The situation of this matter is very clear, and the original compensation plan is also scientific and reasonable, and there is no need to meet and discuss it again. Therefore, I immediately instructed the Planning Bureau to issue a relocation announcement that afternoon, and the Land Bureau would compensate the school according to the original principle of "how much to occupy and how much to compensate, and to resettle the nearest site", and Jiangbei District was responsible for the specific implementation. At the same time, I also told the Municipal Construction Committee to inform the school that if the blocked houses were demolished during the New Year's Day holiday, the municipal government would compensate 16 million yuan according to the normal standard and add 5 million yuan in overtime pay. Other unreasonable requests will not be considered. Finally, I added: "If you haven't moved by January 5th, you will do a review collectively!" ”
After the New Year's Day holiday, on January 5, I took a late flight back to Chongqing. I had to go back to the dormitory, so I went to see it. The construction site was brightly lit, and the original small houses and hill bags were all demolished.
The school is not an ordinary person, but a state-owned institution, and if the students cannot be relocated temporarily because they are going to take classes there, it can be a different matter. However, it is absolutely not permissible to use a storeroom and a toilet to use the interests of the group as a bargaining chip to rip the national bamboo lever. When dealing with this kind of thing, we can't look ahead and backward, we have to do what we should do.
This matter does not belong to the restructuring itself, but in the process of reorganization, it is common to encounter similar unreasonable stakeholders. At this time, the government must make decisive decisions and act quickly, otherwise many things that are beneficial to the public will be dragged out by such ridicule and coercion.
7. The beginning and end of the underground passage of the Three Gorges Museum
One morning in mid-December 2001, I accompanied the secretary and the mayor to the vicinity of People's Square to inspect the progress of the construction of the Three Gorges Museum. The predecessor of the Three Gorges Museum was the Southwest Museum, which was established in 1951 and was renamed the Chongqing Museum in 1955. Since the 90s of the 20 th century, with the launch of the Three Gorges Project and the advancement of the Three Gorges Resettlement, a large number of cultural relics have been formed in the process of submergence and relocation of the Three Gorges reservoir area.
In April 1999, the Chongqing Municipal Government decided to build a new museum, and in September 2000, the State Council issued a document naming it the China Three Gorges Museum. The site of the Three Gorges Museum is set on the central axis of the Great Hall of the People, which is a trinity of the Great Hall, the People's Square, and the museum, like a giant pipa. The museum and the auditorium are directly opposite, and in the middle is the People's Square, which implies the historical dialogue between two landmark buildings in different periods, and the People's Square is a good place for ordinary people to relax and entertain. This design concept, integrated into the humanistic feelings of history and society and the people's beautiful vision for the future, is indeed very far-sighted and atmospheric.
This museum is a national first-class museum jointly built by the central and local governments. The project covers a total area of 45 acres, with a total construction area of more than 40,000 square meters, with 1 underground floor and 4 floors above ground, a total of 5 floors. The total investment is more than 600 million yuan, of which the National Development and Reform Commission has allocated 110 million yuan, and the surplus funds for the protection of the Three Gorges cultural relics have been 120 million yuan, and the remaining 300 million yuan has been paid by the municipal government. In 2000, Chongqing's annual fiscal revenue was more than 10 billion yuan, and the financial resources that could be used were only about 1 billion yuan.
At the construction site of the museum, three exhibition panels were placed, one of which was dedicated to the design of the museum. According to the design at that time, the Three Gorges Museum did not have a cross-walk, but a main road in front of the door for cars, and a large platform was added on the second floor as an entrance and exit. That is to say, the entrance and exit of the museum are not on the ground on the first floor, but on the large platform on the second floor. In this way, the Three Gorges Museum looks like a "big apron" around its waist from a distance, which is neither beautiful nor convenient for ordinary people to enter and exit.
Why is there such a design? The reason for this is that there is a four-lane road under the ground in front of the museum, and in order to make room for passing vehicles, only a second-story platform can be added as an entrance. At that time, I felt that this "apron" was not very well designed, and asked Mayor Bao Xuding why he didn't design an underpass. He sighed and said: "When the Three Gorges Museum was first engaged in architectural design, several bidding design plans had underpasses.
Later, after the calculations of several departments, it was found that the construction of the underpass was 6 or 700 meters on one side and 6 or 700 meters on the other side, adding up to 1,500 meters on both sides, which would involve the relocation of the surrounding dense residential areas, and the overall cost of the underpass would be 150 million yuan, but the budget was only 50 million yuan, and the money was not enough.
In fact, when this plan was evaluated by the bidding, including the Standing Committee of the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress, it was also proposed that it should be a lower path, but the government really had no money, so it had to do so. He also told me that if there was any way to get the underpass out of the underpass for only $50 million on budget, he would be more than willing to adopt the design scheme of the underpass, after all, this is the result that everyone wants to see the most.
For such a fact, which was established before I came to work in Chongqing, if I didn't take it seriously and let it go, I wouldn't be responsible, but since I understand the truth of the matter, as the deputy mayor in charge of urban construction, I feel the responsibility to coordinate it well, but I will regret it in the mayor's heart.
In the afternoon of the same day, I summoned the director of the Construction Committee and the director of the Planning Bureau to the office to study the matter of the underpass of the Three Gorges Museum. I asked them, "Why do you need so much money to build a crossing?" "According to urban planning and design, the slope of the road can only be within 3%, which means that if a road is 100 meters long, the height difference between the two ends is at most 3 meters. The space height of the underpass is more than 10 meters, and if the slope rate is 3%, if the 10 meters are pulled out, it will take almost 6 or 700 meters to enter and exit on both sides, and there will be a total of 1,500 meters. He continued: "If the underpass is made for 1,500 metres, it will involve the relocation of two large residential areas, and it will cost an additional 100 million yuan." ”
I asked them, "Why can't we use a slope of 6%~7%, a little more inclined, the underpass will be shorter, and you can avoid the movement of dense residential areas." They all said, "This is the standard of national norms, and we can't move it!" I said, "Chongqing is a mountain city, and 30% of the upward and downward roads in the city have a slope of more than 10%. Especially on several roads at the entrance of the municipal government, the slope is 20%, and the car is still driving, why can't the Three Gorges Museum use a slope of 6%~7%? The national slope standard of 3% is the general regulation for the plain cities of the country, and in the case of mountain cities like ours, there are slopes and bumps everywhere, and the slopes of more than 10 percent or even 20 percent abound, and the underpass of the Three Gorges Museum adopts a slope of 6% ~ 7%, which can avoid the densely moved residential areas.
When we do things, we must seek truth from facts, we must not be dogmatic, we cannot carve boats for swords, and we can be flexible in this regard. In this way, everyone has a unified understanding, that is, with a slope of 6% ~ 7%, so that the entire length of this underpass is more than 200 meters on both sides, and the whole is 500 meters. According to the calculation of the length of 500 meters, the problem of relocation of residential areas on both sides is avoided, and the money is enough.
This plan kills three birds with one stone: first, the entrance and exit of the museum are changed from the second floor to the first floor, so that people can walk on the platform to enter and exit the museum without climbing a high slope; Second, the original form of making a "big apron" on both sides of the museum has disappeared, so that the museum, the auditorium, and the People's Square are trinity and complement each other; Third, the problem was solved within 50 million yuan without exceeding the budget. After this plan was formed, it was reported to Mayor Bao, and he was very happy and immediately asked the Standing Committee of the Municipal Government to deliberate and approve it and implement it accordingly.
In practical work, quite a number of comrades are prone to the mistake of dogmatism, and they are often stuck too rigidly by some rules and regulations, and they do not deal with them in a realistic manner according to the actual situation. This matter is just based on reality, and the marginal conditions of the scheme design are adjusted and reorganized, and the problem is solved. This shows how important it is to pay attention to the dialectical unity of seeking truth from facts, principle, and flexibility!
These are some of the tricky issues I encountered in my first year in Chongqing, and in addition to coordinating and solving these problems, I wrote down some desk notes and work notes. Looking back now, the text isn't too theoretical, but it's quite interesting. It is placed at the front of this book as an introduction.
This book "Restructuring and Breakthrough" is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the restructuring and management of enterprises, including five categories of enterprises: urban construction investment and financing platform enterprises, state-owned capital operation and investment enterprises, financial enterprises, state-owned industrial and commercial enterprise groups and private enterprises. The restructuring of each type of enterprise involves the severity of the difficulties of the enterprise at that time, the urgency and necessity of the reorganization, as well as the context and principles, countermeasures, results and results of the reorganization plan to solve the problems of the enterprise.
The second part focuses on the restructuring and management of the industry, including the restructuring and management of the six major industries of urban real estate, industrial industry, transformation of inland processing trade, education, finance and finance. The restructuring of each type of industry involves the situation of the industry at that time, the internal difficulties, the voice of the people, and the policy requirements of the state, and the restructuring of each industry involves the optimization and reorganization of various factor resources from the supply side, so as to achieve unconventional development in the structural balance. In this way, it can not only reflect the requirements of the people and society, but also meet the requirements of national policies and systems. In the process of reorganization, we strive not to avoid the current contradictions, not to cover up problems, not to shirk responsibility, not to violate regulations, and not to overdraw.
New book information
Restructuring & Breakthrough
Author: Huang Qifan
Publication date: April 2024
Publisher: CITIC Publishing Group
In the process of work, in the development of enterprises and local communities, we will always encounter all kinds of difficulties, bottlenecks and even crises, if we can use the reorganization of the thinking method, to turn the evil into good and get rid of the predicament, it is undoubtedly a great blessing.
In the course of more than 50 years of work, Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Chongqing, participated in and led a series of restructurings, from which he deeply understood the true meaning and fun of reorganization: its true meaning lies in the optimal allocation of resources, system and mechanism innovation, and its fun lies in "doing whatever you want without exceeding the rules" and "another village". This book is a compilation of Huang Qifan's thinking and practice of "restructuring for breakthroughs" when he encountered difficulties during his work in Chongqing, in order to share with readers the insights of reorganization.