The municipal government held a press conference on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) project at the Municipal Finance Bureau on Nov. 5th. At the conference, the first batch of 28 PPP projects was officially launched, with a totalinvestment of 33.9 billion yuan, which indicates that the city officially opens its door to the social capitals for cooperation.

The first batch of PPP projects includes those stocked, under construction and newly-built, covering 11 public services, such as rail transportation, affordable housing, culture, roads and bridges, urban public transport, waste disposal and health care. Theprogramming of urban bus station project has been completed and soon the bidding procedure will be carried out to choose the best social capital. Maternity and Child Care Service Center (Children’s Hospital) project is at the preparation stage. The early cooperation has been established between the government and over 10 major groups and enterprises, including China Communication Construction, China Construction First Pision and China Construction Third Engineering Pision on many key projects, such as urban railway reconstruction, constructions of Yangtze River Bridge situated at Wujiaguang, Xiazhou Avenue and Jiangcheng Avenue, development of Shahe area and sewage treatment

This mode featuring government’s involvement in its management throughout the whole process has attracted worldwide attention. Currently, with the Municipal Finance Bureau as a member of China\'s PPP Project Committee, Yichang City has established a comprehensive PPP project library and smooth project-collecting channels. The second batch of PPP projects, being identified and screened, will be promoted to the outsideof Yichang according to the principle of "promoting sound batches one by one".    (Reporter ZhengGuanghua, Correspondent XieZuocai)