Think Tank

Enhance the governance and overall effectiveness of government bonds

2026-03-02   

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must comply with the expectations of the people for a better life, adhere to the people-centered position, closely integrate high-quality population development with high-quality people's lives, and closely integrate 'investment in goods' with' investment in people '." The "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" passed at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China further proposes to adhere to the close combination of benefiting people's livelihoods and promoting consumption, and investing in goods and people. These important statements profoundly reveal the value orientation of fiscal governance in the new era, marking the transition of fiscal investment from an expansionary model dominated by material resources to a holistic stage that emphasizes both material and human resources, and simultaneously promotes the construction of carrying capacity and capacity enhancement. Only by better leveraging the coordinating role of bonds between investing in goods and investing in people, and promoting the coordinated development of carrying capacity and capacity enhancement in the same logic, can we solidify the foundation and momentum of high-quality development from a mechanism perspective. Bonds are a key financial tool for coordinating "goods" and "people". Unlike general budget funds that focus on annual arrangements and have shorter cycles, government bonds rely on medium - and long-term maturity structure demands, incorporating various factors such as infrastructure construction, public service supply, and talent cultivation into a unified resource allocation framework. This arrangement clearly points to the composite and holistic coordinating function of fiscal investment in national governance. From the perspective of mechanism attributes, the strengthening of government bonds is not a simple supplement to existing expenditure functions, but a cross type and cross cycle system coordination capability. By institutionalizing the design of deadline structure and usage boundaries, future scenarios, functional requirements, and capability requirements are synchronously embedded during the project initiation phase, so that the formation logic of the object naturally carries the logic of talent growth, and space is reserved and conditions are created for the generation of relevant capabilities from the beginning of construction. From the perspective of governance function, government bonds promote the shift of fiscal resources from sub item allocation to functional coordination, integrating key elements such as infrastructure construction, public service supply, and talent cultivation into a unified target system. Fiscal investment is no longer only directed towards the formation of material forms, but towards capacity building, service improvement, and long-term value creation. The focus of bond coordination is not simply adding or subtracting between two types of inputs, but through institutional design to enable an input to have a composite effect of enhancing carrying capacity, improving supply capacity, and cultivating future momentum, becoming a key financial tool to support high-quality development. The institutional carrier for coordinating hardware construction and capacity enhancement. Through the rule system and governance mechanism, government bonds include what to build, how to use, and how to play a role in the institutional process of linkage. Financial investment has shifted from the logic of project construction to the logic of public capacity, and promoted the transformation of development mode from the source. In terms of budget linkage, the government bond reform breaks the segmented management of capital and recurrent expenditures, and synchronously embeds key elements such as talent allocation, operational services, and operational capabilities in the project approval stage. Hardware construction is no longer isolated as a project, but a natural carrying capacity cultivation function, reducing the structural deviation of building quickly and using slowly from a systemic perspective. In the whole process of governance, government bonds will integrate pre evaluation, in-process tracking, and post effectiveness into a closed loop, shifting the focus of evaluation from completion rate to functional performance, service accessibility, and capacity improvement. This will truly bring public projects back to the fundamental issues of who to build for and how to use them after completion, and promote fiscal governance from engineering thinking to capacity orientation. In terms of institutional integration, government bonds incorporate financial, education, science and technology, health, human resources and other departments into the collaborative system through mechanisms such as overall planning of expenditure lists, integrated management of processes, and unified performance standards. The originally decentralized input process can form a joint force on the institutional platform, so as to achieve the integrated promotion of public construction, public services, and public capabilities, closely bind construction and capabilities from the institutional level, and promote the transformation of input mode from decentralization to system, from focusing on "material" to focusing on "energy". The policy engine that coordinates current investment with long-term development. Through institutionalized term structure and cross cycle investment arrangement, government bonds can purposefully transform current investment into future capacity, which can alleviate the time mismatch between the construction cycle and the capacity formation cycle, and form a policy force to coordinate current needs and long-term capabilities. Currently, government bonds provide stable financial support for the construction of major infrastructure and public service facilities, enabling the effective promotion of tasks such as stabilizing growth, addressing weaknesses, and benefiting people's livelihoods. At the same time, through pre planning and functional embedding, education, technology, talent and other capability elements are synchronously incorporated during the construction phase. Various projects can have availability, operability and driving force at the beginning of construction, thereby reducing the mismatch phenomenon of "things" already being prepared but "capabilities" not being prepared, and facilities being built but services lagging behind. In the long run, government bonds will match the construction cycle, application cycle and capacity generation cycle through scenario presetting and function foresight, and the basis of today's investment will gradually precipitate into tomorrow's innovation, service and talent capabilities. Promote the deepening and consolidation of bond pooling efficiency. Promote mechanism coordination and consolidate the foundation of overall planning. To enhance overall efficiency, we must first lay a solid foundation in the institutional system and form a work pattern that integrates the design and promotion of "things" and "people". We must adhere to the system concept, promote the deep connection between bond arrangement and planning system, budget system, and project system, clarify the overall construction content, capacity requirements, and service support during the government bond project demonstration stage, and synchronize the ability support required for hardware construction with the institutional conditions required for capacity generation, consciously embedding the construction logic into the ability logic. We need to further improve the cross departmental collaboration mechanism, promote the transformation of departments such as finance, development and reform, education, science and technology, and health from serial docking to parallel collaboration, and achieve integrated planning and implementation of construction needs, talent needs, and service needs. By improving hierarchical classification management, strengthening information sharing, and joint review and evaluation, we aim to solidify the overall foundation of bonds between material and capacity building from the institutional source. Strengthen performance traction and enhance the effectiveness of overall planning. Whether the overall efficiency can be truly reflected depends on whether the performance orientation is clear. To build a performance indicator system that reflects the value of people's livelihood, public capacity, and long-term sustainability, the focus of evaluation should shift from how much has been built to how much capacity has been improved, how much has benefited the masses, and how much has been contributed to long-term development. The unified goal of "investing in things" and "investing in people" should be transformed into measurable performance requirements. In practice, some regions can incorporate indicators such as public space improvement, community service supply, and governance participation into the performance evaluation of special bond projects such as urban renewal and renovation of old residential areas, in order to promote the transformation of government bond projects from heavy construction to heavy functionality. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the performance management of the entire process, integrate the feasibility assessment of pre demonstration, quality control of in-process tracking, and post effectiveness inquiry, and form a responsibility chain that integrates construction responsibility, supporting responsibility, and operational responsibility. The construction of "things" must synchronously drive "people", and the improvement of "people's" abilities should become a rigid constraint. We also need to improve the mechanism for applying performance results, truly linking evaluation results with funding arrangements, policy adjustments, and responsibility implementation. Through the performance "baton", we can force the improvement of the governance system and promote the transformation of bond coordination efficiency from "paper" requirements to actual results, so that every fund can form visible and sustainable comprehensive returns. Optimize the linkage of elements and expand the "momentum" of overall planning. The sustained amplification of overall efficiency depends on whether the synergy of elements can form a joint force. We should fully leverage the driving and amplifying role of government bonds, promote the coordinated efforts of fiscal policy, industrial policy, science and technology policy, and talent policy, and form a virtuous cycle of mutual support between platform construction and capacity enhancement. We need to further promote the coordinated use of bonds, funds, credit, equity investments, etc., and build a diversified investment pattern of fiscal guidance, financial support, and social participation, expanding bond investment from supporting a single construction link to empowering the development of the entire chain. At the same time, relying on major projects and comprehensive platforms, we can promote the integration of industry and education, the integration of science and education, and the coordination of medical education, to extend the effectiveness of bond coordination from the fiscal field to industrial upgrading, public service optimization, and regional governance capacity enhancement, and to form an upward trend and sustained force to promote high-quality development on a larger scale. To enhance the overall role of government bonds in "investing in things" and "investing in people", we must always adhere to the people centered development idea. We must let every bond fund cultivate the ability of "people" on the solid basis of "things", let every public investment amplify the effectiveness of "things" in the growth of "people", and continue to inject more stable, more warm and more resilient financial power into Chinese path to modernization. Author: Gao Yan (Professor of Public Relations at China Jiliang University)

Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Wang Erdong

Source:cssn.cn

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