A senior official with the Beijing municipal government Wednesday promised more opportunities for non-governmental capital in the city's stepped-up development of infrastructure facilities.

"We should use innovative ways to break industry barriers to attract more social funds through the market," Liu Yongfu, director of the Construction Commission of the Beijing Municipal Government, told the Standing Committee of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress at its seventh session.

"By introducing a market competition mechanism, social funds should be allowed to be used in the construction of major municipal engineering projects through joint funding, joint operating, taking on shares, franchising, and project financing," Liu said.

Specifically, social funds will be welcomed in such areas as rail transport, public utilities and environmental projects.

The Beijing municipal government has been announcing major engineering projects each year, in order to give a substantial push to the city's infrastructure upgrades. Out of 60 such projects this year, 47 have started construction, while the rest will be started before the end of this year, according to Liu.

As much as 32.81 billion yuan (US$3.97 billion) has been invested in these projects this year so far, roughly one third of the city's total investment in fixed assets for that period.

But were it not for financing difficulties, more projects would have been kicked off, said Liu.

In particular, Liu said, the commission should pay more attention to the investment intentions of large international companies and attract more of them to get involved in the rapid economic development of Beijing through mergers, acquisitions and transfers of state-owned shares.

As far as Liu is concerned, the construction of these major engineering projects has produced obvious improvements in local investment and the city's natural environment.

One case in point, said Liu, is the completion of an afforestation project of 59,363 hectares aimed at reducing the city's sandstorms, which has helped the city enjoy 161 days of good air quality by September 15 this year, 62.6 percent of the total number of days so far.

Also at Wednesday's session, the standing committee urged the municipal government to adopt effective measures to attract more investment from Taiwan as well.

Although the city has published various practical measures to ensure its appeal to Taiwan investors, Overseas Chinese Affairs Standing Committee Director Chen Xingbo said Beijing still needs better monitoring mechanisms to safeguard the legitimate rights of Taiwanese investors and their families.

(China Daily October 16, 2003)