In March of this year, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Replacement."
In July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Replacement," allocating about 300 billion yuan of super long-term special treasury bond funds to vigorously support the "two new" initiatives.
On September 23, the National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference to introduce the overall progress and effectiveness of the "two new" policies.
Zhao Chenxin, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that under the joint efforts of all parties, the "two new" work has gradually achieved significant results.
Supporting regulations have been fully introduced, treasury bond funds have been fully allocated, and supporting policies have been fully launched.
This has effectively stimulated investment growth, unleashed consumption potential, promoted industrial development, improved people's livelihood, and supported green transformation.
Zhao Chenxin emphasized that the "two new" work connects the supply and demand sides, benefiting both enterprises and the public, and is an important measure to promote high-quality development.
The "two new" work is an organic combination of greening and digitalization, which helps to transform these potentials into tangible growth.
The National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant parties to fully utilize and make good use of policies and funds such as the "two new" and super long-term special treasury bonds, to extend the benefits of policy dividends to a broader range of consumers and business entities, and to provide stronger momentum for promoting sustained and healthy economic development and accelerating the transformation of production and lifestyle.
The "two new" work has achieved significant results.
On July 25, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Replacement," allocating about 300 billion yuan of super long-term special treasury bond funds, significantly expanding the scope of support, optimizing the organization mode, and raising subsidy standards.
Zhao Chenxin introduced that at the national level, after the issuance of several measures to vigorously support the "two new," the notification of equipment renewal project declarations, as well as the implementation details of equipment renewal in eight fields such as industrial equipment, energy equipment, environmental infrastructure, operational ships, operational trucks, new energy buses, agricultural machinery, and old elevators, and the implementation details of consumer goods replacement in four fields such as automobiles, home appliances, electric bicycles, and home decoration and kitchen and bathroom, these supporting measures have all been issued and implemented.
At the local level, 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and five cities with independent planning status and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have all issued implementation plans to vigorously support the "two new," and have also issued various local supporting implementation details, more than 140 copies.
It can be said that the policy system using super long-term special treasury bond funds to vigorously support the "two new" has been constructed, laying a solid foundation for this year and future work.
Treasury bond funds have been fully allocated.
In terms of equipment renewal, the Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, has optimized the support mode and simplified the approval process according to the principle of "local review and national review," and has selected more than 4,600 equipment renewal projects that meet the conditions.
The 150 billion yuan of treasury bond funds in the equipment renewal field have been allocated to the projects in two batches according to the relevant regulations and procedures.
In terms of consumer goods replacement, the Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Finance, has reasonably determined the scale of financial support based on factors such as the permanent population and gross domestic product of each region, and the ownership of automobiles and home appliances, and the 150 billion yuan of treasury bond funds in the field of consumer goods replacement have been fully allocated to the localities at the beginning of August.
A set of latest data released by the Development and Reform Commission shows that the "two new" work has gradually achieved significant results.
In terms of expanding investment, the continuous promotion of equipment renewal policies has effectively mobilized the enthusiasm of business entities to renew various types of equipment such as production, energy, and elevators.
In the first eight months, the investment in equipment and tools increased by 16.8%, 13.4 percentage points higher than the growth rate of total fixed asset investment (excluding farmers), and the contribution rate to the total investment growth reached 64.2%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points compared to the first seven months, indicating that the pull effect in August after the implementation of the strengthened policy is more obvious.
In terms of promoting consumption, the continuous implementation of the old-for-new policy in various places has driven a significant increase in the sales of key consumer goods.
For example, data from the China Automobile Circulation Association shows that the national passenger car retail volume in August was 1.905 million vehicles, a significant increase of 10.8% month-on-month; among them, the new energy vehicle retail volume was 1.027 million vehicles, a significant increase of 17% month-on-month.
Another example is that data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the retail sales of home appliances and audio-visual equipment turned from a decline to an increase, with a year-on-year growth of 3.4% in August sales.
From the perspective of platforms and stores, the consumption of old-for-new home appliances has grown rapidly recently.
From August 26 to September 21, the sales of refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, air conditioners, and computers and other home appliance products on the JD platform increased by 128.8%, 86.3%, 130.6%, 240.5%, and 52.2% year-on-year, respectively.
The growth rate of these five types of appliances is at least 52.2%, which is very obvious; from September 1 to 21, the flow of customers in the Suning Easy Purchase stores across the country doubled, and the sales of computers and air conditioners achieved rapid growth of nearly 300% and 100%, respectively.
In addition, the "two new" policies have also effectively promoted industrial development.
The "two new" work continues to stimulate demand potential, and the policy effects are being transmitted to the supply side, promoting the production of equipment manufacturing, automobiles, home appliances, and other industries to grow rapidly.
Taking the key areas of equipment renewal such as transportation and communication as an example, in August, the added value of manufacturing industries such as ships and related equipment, urban rail transit equipment, and communication equipment increased by 23%, 17.1%, and 10.3% year-on-year, respectively; the production of products such as household washing machines, smart TVs, and household refrigerators also achieved rapid growth.
The intensity of financial support is continuously increasing.
Financial support and supervision are key links in vigorously promoting the "two new" work and are crucial for the orderly progress of the "two new" work.
Zhao Changsheng, Deputy Director of the Economic Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance, said at the press conference that 150 billion yuan of super long-term special treasury bond funds were arranged in batches and directly to the localities.
The National Development and Reform Commission took the lead, determined the scale of funds for each region based on factors such as the permanent population, GDP, and ownership of automobiles and home appliances, and the Ministry of Finance pre-allocated 90 billion yuan of funds to the localities at the first time at a ratio of 60%, and required each province to quickly decompose the budget funds to the same level of relevant departments or lower-level financial departments, effectively ensuring that the localities can start related work in a timely manner.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance closely follows the progress of work in various places, grasps the progress of fund use in real-time, and issues the remaining 60 billion yuan of funds in a timely manner according to the actual progress of work in various places, effectively ensuring the demand for subsidies for consumer goods replacement during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.
Zhao Changsheng mentioned that the funds to support the "two new" work are large and involve many fields, and it is necessary to continuously strengthen fund supervision to ensure the safety of funds.
In this regard, the Ministry of Finance has established a regular dispatch mechanism in conjunction with the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, closely follows the progress of policy implementation, and presses the main responsibility of project and fund management in various places.
At the same time, it clarifies the "negative list" of fund use, requiring that the funds should not be used to balance budgets, repay government debts, or clear arrears of corporate accounts, "three guarantees" expenditures, etc., and through specific measures such as online monitoring and offline verification, to prevent the occupation and misappropriation of funds, so that the "real gold and silver" policy is implemented and takes effect as soon as possible.
The financing needs of enterprises in equipment renewal are mainly met by bank loans, and the People's Bank of China supports it through re-lending policy tools.
In April this year, the People's Bank of China, together with the Development and Reform Commission and other departments, created a re-lending for scientific and technological innovation and technical transformation, with a scale of 500 billion yuan and an interest rate of 1.75%.
Among them, 100 billion yuan was arranged to support the "first loan" of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises in the initial and growth stages; 400 billion yuan was arranged to support key field equipment renewal and technical transformation projects, and it was emphasized to give priority to the projects declared by small and medium-sized enterprises.
Peng Lifeng, Director of the Credit Market Department of the People's Bank of China, introduced at the press conference that since the implementation of the policy, a total of three batches and 13,000 optional projects have been pushed to bank institutions; the People's Bank of China and other departments have guided bank institutions to establish a special working mechanism, strengthen resource protection, accelerate docking and due diligence, and increase credit support for project financing according to market principles.
The work has made positive progress, and the equipment renewal projects pushed have basically achieved "full coverage" of financing docking and due diligence, with a total signed loan amount of 230 billion yuan, and the weighted average interest rate is 3.1%, which is 25 basis points lower than the one-year LPR interest rate (3.35%), strongly supporting the implementation of key field technical transformation and equipment renewal projects.
According to statistics, 70% of the funds support small and medium-sized enterprises.
Peng Lifeng said that in the next step, the People's Bank of China will further increase the guidance and supervision of bank institutions and local governments, by accelerating the progress of land, planning, environmental protection, and safety permits for loan projects, including more private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, and agricultural subjects in the optional list, increasing the support for financing guarantees and risk compensation, and making full use of scientific and technological innovation and technical transformation re-lending, strongly supporting key field technical transformation and equipment renewal projects; improve the financial "five major articles" policy system, enrich the exclusive financial products that meet the needs of the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and continuously improve the intensity, coverage, and adaptability of financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Ding Minglie, a researcher at the China Science and Technology Development Strategy Research Institute, said that the fiscal interest subsidy policy for equipment renewal loans aims to let business entities obtain "real gold and silver" support through the deployment of large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods replacement, which is an important measure to accelerate scientific and technological innovation to empower new quality productive forces and promote high-quality development.
Through the joint efforts of fiscal policy, financial policy, and industrial policy, the financing cost of enterprise equipment renewal can be reduced, industrial upgrading and technological progress can be promoted, the competitiveness of enterprises can be enhanced, and the policy incentive and guidance effects can be effectively amplified.Ding Minglei stated that there should be an efficient information sharing mechanism established among the financial, development reform, industry management, and financial regulatory departments to ensure that all departments obtain and convey information about the use of interest subsidy funds in a timely manner.
Financial departments at all levels should accelerate the disbursement of interest subsidy funds to ensure that the funds are in place on time to support the smooth progress of enterprise equipment renewal projects.
He suggested that there should be regular assessments of the effectiveness of policy implementation, collection of feedback from enterprises and financial institutions, and timely adjustments and optimization of policy measures to enhance the applicability and effectiveness of the policies.
A strict supervision and evaluation mechanism should be established to regularly review the use of interest subsidy funds, ensuring that the use of funds is open, transparent, and efficient.
