Professor Xie Hongfei Attends the Expert Consultation meeting on the Exposure Draft of the Regulations on the Cooperation Between the Government and Social Capitals in Fields of Infrastructure and Public Service

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On August 14, 2017, the Expert Consultation meeting on the Exposure Draft of the Regulations on the Cooperation Between the Government and Social Capitals in Fields of Infrastructure and Public Service (The Twentieth Legislative Expert Consultation Meeting of China Law Society in 2017) was successfully held in Beijing. The meeting was jointly organized by the Research Department and Administrative Law Research Committee of China Law Society and China PPP Governance Institute of Central University of Finance and Economics, presided over by Professor Zhang Wenxian, Vice Chairman of China Law Society, and attended by scholars and experts from various universities, research institutions, judicial organs, enterprises and law firms, including Professor Xie Hongfei from CASS Law Institute. At the meeting, the leaders of the relevant departments of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance, and National Development and Reform Commission first gave an introduction to the background of and the main considerations in Draft Regulations on the Cooperation Between the Government and Social Capitals in Fields of Infrastructure and Public Service. The experts and scholars held that the adoption of a legislation to regulate the cooperation between the government and social capitals in fields of infrastructure and public service is very necessary. The Draft Regulations, by providing for the basic principles on issues that urgently need to be regulated in the cooperation between the government and social capitals in fields of infrastructure and public service, is conducive to the providing institutional basis and legal safeguard in this field. The definition of the connotation of the cooperation between the government and social capitals in fields of infrastructure and public service is very important. Legislative organs should break the existing mode of defining such cooperation only on the basis of behavior characteristics and confirm the basic attributes of this core concept, so as to avoid the confusion in the legislative orientation and application of the law after the adoption of the administrative regulations. The cooperation between the government and social capitals in fields of infrastructure and public service is an important content of the supply-side structural reform that embodies such principles as separation of government functions from enterprise management, highly effective administration, improving the utilization efficiency of financial funds, and encouraging the optimization of elements of the productive force and, as such, is the motive forces of innovation. The Draft regulations should fully embody the principle of putting public interest first and strike a balance between legislative regulation and the freedom of contract. The experts and scholars put forward suggestions and proposals on further improving the Draft Regulations in the following respects: the definition of core concepts, the title of the administrative regulations, the functional orientation of the legislation, the definition of competent administrative authorities, financing guarantee, channels of dispute resolution, legal responsibilities, and literal expression.