Zhao Zhiyun, director of the Research Center of Finance and Taxation under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), saidChina, as a developing country, has a relatively heavy financial burden and local governments normally have not enough money to build all the public infrastructure. With the involvement of private investment, infrastructure construction will become manageable.

Li Yang, deputy director of the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics under the CASS, said private investment in public infrastructure is not new in China. China's southern city of Guangzhou began using private capital for bridge construction a decade ago.

At present, many cities in China, such as Shanghai, Wuhan and Zhangjiagang all have public bidding for the construction of public infrastructure.

However, most of the funding for constructing public infrastructure still mainly comes from governments, charges for land use and other fees.

Along with the deepening of China's reform and opening-up and it further involvement in economic globalization, more cities in China are realizing that better public infrastructure helps to improve their city's competitiveness, said Li Yang.

The use of private capital can also lead to better management and supervision, and therefore to better public infrastructure, hesaid.

At present, private capital can be used in fields such as roadway construction, water and power supply systems and environmental protection construction.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2002)