Research On Problems And Solutions Of Privatization Of The Urban Public Transport In China

Since the 80's of the 20th century,as the mainstream of new public management, privatization has gradually become a widely used model of administration in the provision of public services and developing public utilities. Since the 90's of the 20th century,by the impact of privatization of public services in Western countries,China has been also quietly involved in the reform,the range of the reform involves gas,water,urban public transport,waste disposal and other aspects.Among them,the urban public transport,as public infrastructure closely related to the regional economic development and people's lives, privatization has also begun in many cities,such as Beijing,Shanghai,Hefei,Changsha,Huanggang,Wuxi,Lanxi,etc., once the reform has obtained a great achivement.In Shiyan City,Hubei Province,privatization of urban public transport created a precedent for overall privatization of urban public transport and caused a great reaction.After experiencing a short period of 5 years,the reform which is originally optimistic has finished with the franchise withdrawed by government,and many other cities have also encountered similar problems,privatization seems to be difficult to continue. These problems lead to the public suspect prospect of privatization and even think that privatization is not suitable for urban public transport. Faced with this dilemma,simply deny the privatization, repay private capital and return to the state-owned,these measures can temporarily heal the public's discontent,ensure urban public transport safe and orderly,but still can not solve some problems resulted from government monopoly in urban public transport,such as inefficiency,a serious loss,shortage in funding and technology,it will not bring us a public transport which is competitive,efficiency,good quality in service,comfortable and convenient.Both in theory and in practice in some areas of foreign and domestic,privatization has played a huge role in improving city bus service and operational efficiency of urban public transport. A series of problems caused by privatization don't result from privatization itself,but because we misunderstand the essence of privatization and abandon responsibilities that we should take.We have to understand:Firstly, privatization has many evidences in theory and practice,A good progress has been made in many areas of the utilities,there is not any evidence that privatization is not suitable for urban public transport.Secondly,privatization is not the root of the confusion resulting from reform. A series of issues brought about by current privatization in urban public transport,such as rizing in service price,corporate monopoly,vicious competition,etc., primarily result from imperfect laws and regulations,the lack of government regulation and shortage of government subsidies.Thirdly,Facing the crisis,it is a helpless choice that urban public transport restore state-owned.The government lacks countermeasures when confronting some emergencies,such as bus outage,in order to avoid worsening of the situation,withdrawing the franchise is a sensible approach. However,the future development of urban public transport can not completely exclude private capital and foreign capital.It is not a wise choice for settlement of problems that urban public transport restores state-owned and the government completely denies privatization.We must re-examine the original purpose of privatization, summarize its basic theory and practical experience in detail,abandon some wrong ideas and practices such as selling urban public transport simply,even only in order to obtain profits.Our government should insist on reformming operational mechanisms of urban public transport to improve service efficiency and improving the operating environment of urban public transport to improve service quality,establish thinkings and principle of privatization of urban public transport,summrize current problems of privatization of urban public transport,find the root of problems and propose some corresponding solutions, including improving laws and regulations,strengthening government regulation,transforming government function,reducing administrative intervention, improving government financial subsidy and supporting measures an so on.