Research On Financing Of High-speed Railways In China

China, as a typical continental country, featured with a big population, vast territory, large-scope economic exchanges and communication, needs for a powerful transport mode to network the whole country and national economy. Serving as an important infrastructure, the main artery of national economy and a popular mode of public transport, railway boasts large capacity, low operating cost and less energy consumption. It owns overwhelming advantage in high volume mid- and long distance freight and passenger traffics, and is also very competitive in mid- and short distance inter-city passenger traffic of large volume and high density, becoming a main transport mode most suitable for domestic geographical characteristics and people's income level. Ever since the reform and opening up, China Railway has made remarkable achievements in construction, but still failed to meet requirements of national economy and society development in terms of scale and quality. To fundamentally solve the conflict between supply and demand, national mid- and long-term development program and railway construction program in the "Eleventh Five-Year" period are established. According to the "Mid- and Long-term Development Program of Integrated Transport Network" approved by the State Council, the operating route of China Railways will exceed 120 000km by 2020. And based on the "Mid- and Long-term Development Program of Integrated Transport Network", China Railways made adjustment on the "Mid- and Long-term Railway Development Program" (the Program for short hereinafter) approved by the State Council in 2004 in last year, which forms the "Mid- and Long-term Railway Development Program (adjusted version in 2008)" (the Adjusted Program for short hereinafter). According to the Adjusted Program, China will construct 16000km passenger-dedicated lines (high-speed lines) by 2020, which is 1.6 times of the total length of world high-speed lines, and realize separation between freight and passenger traffics. However, only relying on the previous mode that main source of railway construction comes from government investment could not meet requirements on capitals of large-scale high-speed railway. How to expand the financing channels and diversify financing emerges as an urgent problem needing for our consideration. It is also just the purpose of this paper.This paper bases on the source, management and mode of high-speed financing in Germany, France and Japan with advanced high-speed networks, makes detailed analysis on financing characteristics of high-speed railway construction in these three countries, and tries to combine successful experiences in high-speed railway construction financing with domestic characteristics to promote the successful experience in large-scale PDL construction projects. The paper includes five parts: introduction, basic financing theories for infrastructure construction, analysis on foreign railways financing, analysis on financing of China's high-speed railway, conclusions and suggestions.