Ma Yijiayi, an ethnic minority female entrepreneur, continued to ask for project funds for 8 years after undertaking 10 ** projects, including the ex-situ poverty alleviation and relocation project (** special poverty alleviation fund project), kindergartens, and primary schools for Liupanshui, Guizhou. At the end of 2023, on the day of the hearing of the Guizhou Provincial High People's Court, she was criminally detained by the local police on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.
The reporter of "China Business Daily" verified that before her, more than 10 lawyers, paralegals, and other lawyers who executed her ** debts had been criminally detained, and they were all suspected of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. The matters involved, that is, lawyers and others have published relevant debt and litigation information on Weibo and Douyin. The lawyer also mailed a letter reporting ****** in Shuicheng District to this ** himself. The content of the report involves non-payment of debts, illegal unfreezing, and the whereabouts of a large amount of funds.
On February 27, the local ** reported that "the district will use 12 million yuan to resolve all debts of more than 200 million yuan" related reports are not true. In addition, the report said that the female entrepreneur Ma Moumou was suspected of infringing on citizens' personal information and picking quarrels and provoking troubles, and was detained by the public security organs in November 2023. At present, the case has been transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.
Judging from this response, the local ** mainly provided two pieces of information: First, the total amount of the 10 projects involved is about 16,332710,000 yuan, 14,670 has been paid so far60,000 yuan, the payment ratio is 8982%, to sum up, "Liupanshui City Shuicheng District ** owes about 2 to enterprises200 million yuan", and "the district wants to settle all the debts of more than 200 million yuan with 12 million yuan" are not true.
Second, Fang Moumou used means such as installing GPS locators to track others and illegally obtain citizens' personal information; Since September 2023, Ma Moumou, Hou Moumou and others have fabricated false information, arranged for 3 people including Hong Moumou, and hired 5 people including Qu Moumou to maliciously hype up online, post false big-character posters in public places, and scatter leaflets. Because the actions of Ma Moumou and others were suspected of infringing on citizens' personal information and picking quarrels and provoking troubles, the public security organs criminally detained Ma Moumou in accordance with the law on November 27, 2023, and arrested him in accordance with the law on December 27 of the same year. At present, the case has been transferred to the procuratorate for examination and prosecution, and is being handled in accordance with the law.
Obviously, about the female entrepreneur Ma Yijiayi is due to the local arrears 2The 200 million yuan project was reported angrily, or was suspected of infringing on citizens' personal information and picking quarrels and provoking troubles, ** the report is inconsistent with the official response, and a higher-level agency investigation is needed to have greater credibility.
I wrote this article, not to dwell on the details of this incident, but to discover that there are three unsolved questions hidden behind it.
Mystery 1: What did the 22.1 billion transfer payment bring
As a prefecture-level city in Guizhou, Liupanshui is an economically underdeveloped area. According to the report on the implementation of the city-wide and municipal-level budget in Liupanshui City in 2023 and the draft city-wide and city-level budget in 2024, the city's general public budget revenue in 2023 will be 1103.3 billion yuan, and the subsidy income from the higher level was 221200 million yuan, obviously, its fiscal and tax revenue is far from enough to cover daily expenses, so it is a highly dependent area on transfer payments.
According to the "Report on Fiscal Transfer Payments" submitted to the fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress for consideration in 2023, it is pointed out that fiscal transfer payments refer to the funds allocated by superiors to subordinates free of charge, including transfer payments to local governments and transfer payments from local superiors to subordinates, which are mainly used to solve the problem of regional financial imbalance and promote the equalization of basic public services between regions.
Regions that are highly dependent on transfer payments are like a seed rooted in overly fertile artificial soil, which can flourish in the short term, but may inhibit the vitality of private economic investment and development in the long run, forming a seemingly paradoxical "infarction" phenomenon.
Over-reliance on transfer payments can easily lead to the weakening of local fiscal autonomy. When a region's main financial resources are subsidized by the superiors, rather than the tax revenue increase brought about by local economic development, the local government may lack sufficient motivation to optimize the business environment and activate the development potential of the private economy. For them, securing more transfers is more straightforward and faster than nurturing and attracting private investment. In recent years, some areas have competed for the hat of "poor county" and the strange situation of transfer payment behind it, which is the best proof.
Transfer payments can also lead to resource misallocation and inefficiencies.
As early as 2021, CCTV reported that Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province, adjusted its administrative division, and Shuicheng County was officially renamed Shuicheng District. Shuicheng just got out of poverty in March 2020. Since 2017, the local government has built a "road cycling track" on the mountain, and has also built a series of scenic spots and facilities such as the 24-building Whip Town and the world's largest Whip Tuo Cultural Museum.
Some people reported to the CCTV News **4008000088 that these man-made attractions have been stopped one after another after the start of construction, and they are still in a state of unfinished. The first floor has become a supermarket, the third floor has become a conference room, and only some spinning tops are placed in the display cabinets on the second floor. Museums, towns, bike tracks, ......The budget for this series of projects is nearly 300 million yuan. CCTV asked: How to clean up the mess left by blindly going on the project?
Among them, the Whip Town of Yeyuhai Resort and the World Whip Tuo Culture Museum happened to be undertaken by Ma Yijiayi. It is not difficult to understand why it is difficult to collect payments for related projects, because there is a serious shortage of revenue.
It seems that Ma Yijiayi accepted the sweet pastry, but now it has become a hot potato. Even according to the local ** response, the relevant project was built from 2016 to 2019, but after nearly 5 years, the payment rate is less than 90%. If funds are in arrears for a long time, it will cost the life of a private enterprise.
As a result, I have a question, is it that the large amount of money brought by the transfer payment is invested in similar projects led by **? The lack of rigorous feasibility study and scientific risk assessment at the beginning of the project was carried out, and the dynamic monitoring and effect evaluation were neglected in the implementation process, resulting in many projects not reaching the expected goals and unable to adjust and optimize in time. This "one-size-fits-all" model undoubtedly throws public wealth into a depression of efficiency. In terms of the use of funds, due to poor supervision and opaque information, there are phenomena such as precipitation, misappropriation and even loss of funds, which makes valuable public resources seriously wasted.
Mystery 2: Dependent survival, blessings and disasters for private enterprises?
According to the 2022 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin of Liupanshui City (the 2023 Communiqué has not yet been released), the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size decreased by 21％。The total import and export volume of the city is 164.6 billion yuan, down 289％。In 2023, the city's GDP will be 15576.4 billion yuan, obviously, the local economic development is facing many difficulties. In this regard, Liupanshui has increased its leading investment and construction. According to local data, in 2023, the city will arrange a total of 524 major projects and key projects (including 232 at the provincial level), with a total investment of 4,8439.2 billion yuan, with an annual investment target of 4605.3 billion yuan. As of December 31, the city's major projects and key projects have completed an investment of 5313.2 billion yuan (14.3 billion yuan has been invested in provincial and cross-city and state projects.)700 million yuan), accounting for 115 percent of the annual investment target37％。
What does the investment of more than 53 billion yuan in major projects and key projects "exceed" the completion of tasks? On the one hand, such a huge investment is obviously not available to local state-owned enterprises alone. Therefore, many private enterprises will participate in it. Ma Yijiayi is one of them. If you get the project money smoothly, it seems to be a happy thing.
However, if the proportion of investment projects led by a local ** is too high, it will do more harm than good to the private economy as a whole.
* The excessive expansion of investment may distort the market signal, make the investment decisions of the private economy deviate from the market law, and thus affect the efficiency of resource allocation in the entire market.
Needless to say, many private enterprises, especially those in the mainland, are mainly engaged in contracting leading investment projects, forming a dependence on first-class support, which is not conducive to cultivating the independent viability and market adaptability of the private economy.
This is what economics calls the "dependency development theory", where there is a central-peripheral level. **Investment constitutes the center of the local economy, the private economy is in the periphery, and a large number of orders are relied on, which is not only difficult to stimulate the endogenous power of the private economy, but also leads to a single economic structure and insufficient market resilience.
At the same time, it is difficult to cope with such a huge investment by relying on local finances and changes alone, so local government bonds are a channel.
In the "annual anti-corruption blockbuster" broadcast in January this year, it was revealed that Li Zaiyong, former member of the party group and vice chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, had been in charge of Liupanshui for more than three years, and the local new debt had reached more than 150 billion yuan, with a debt growth rate of more than 300% from 2013 to 2017.
Behind the surge in debt is the accumulation of fiscal risks and the redistribution of financial resources. On the one hand, the excessively high local debt burden has increased the debt repayment pressure of the local government, which may lead to the adoption of a more conservative fiscal policy and the reduction of investment in the field of people's livelihood and public services, thereby indirectly affecting the business environment and development foundation of private enterprises.
On the other hand, the expansion of local debt means that a large amount of financial resources are concentrated in large-scale projects led by the first government, forming a "crowding out effect" on private investment. Under the pressure of debt, financial institutions may prefer loans to projects with relatively high security, which in turn reduces credit support for private enterprises, resulting in more and more prominent problems of difficult and expensive financing for private enterprises. This not only restricts the rapid development of the private economy, but also reduces the vitality and innovation of the entire economy.
In addition, once a local debt crisis erupts, it will inevitably lead to financial market turmoil and increase systemic risks, and private enterprises, as the most active and vulnerable part of the market, are often the first to be affected. The local debt crisis may lead to a credit crunch and rising interest rates, further aggravating the operating difficulties of private enterprises, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
It can be seen that too many investment projects, especially extensive projects, on the surface to promote local infrastructure construction and public service upgrading, will help stimulate economic growth in the short term, but in the long run, it will cause excessive intervention in the economic micro, distort market signals, and ultimately seriously affect private enterprises and people's livelihood.
Doubt 3: The most important proposition of the "Private Economy Promotion Law".
Recently, the Ministry of Justice, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress jointly held a symposium on legislative work, revealing that the draft of the "Law on the Promotion of the Private Economy", which has aroused concern from all walks of life, has been launched, and the legislative process will be accelerated. Yesterday, many ** and netizens discussed the arrest of female entrepreneurs in Guizhou who were caught in "picking quarrels and provoking troubles" for asking for project funds, and also mentioned the "Private Economy Promotion Law".
In my opinion, the core concept of this law is to clarify the functional positioning of the market and the market, make it clear that the market should be the night watchman rather than a participant, and respect and maintain the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources. The first is the relaxation of the system, through the revision and improvement of a series of laws and regulations, to eliminate the ownership discrimination of the private economy, break down industry barriers, and give private enterprises equal market access rights;The second is the protection of rights and interests, clearly protecting the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises, and severely cracking down on the infringement of the property rights of private enterprises. In other words, "not bad money", especially when it comes to investment, is not necessarily a good thing.
* "Too much management" has always been a hot pain point reflected by many private entrepreneurs, which can be solved by reducing a few approval seals. Direct and indirect investment in all areas that do not need to be involved is more important for the private economy.
Ma Yijiayi's experience still needs to be given more facts by the local ** and other parties, but Ma Yijiayi is more like a microcosm, what kind of development environment is needed for private enterprises or the private economy in a broader sense, this proposition seems to be still on the way to find an answer.