State Treasuries at various levels across the country were required to earnestly carry out the polices and measures set forth by the State Council on how the financial sectorcan support economic growth and to comprehensively improve State Treasury services, according to a teleconference held on December 17th in Beijing.
Su Ning, member ofthe CPC PBC Committee and Deputy Governor of the PBC, stressed when addressing the conference that the formulation of the polices and measures, which were released by the State Council on December 3rd, was an important forward-looking move aimed to extend financial support to the country’s economic growth. The implementation of these polices and measures thus bears great significance in understanding the overall picture of the current economic situation, actively addressing international and domestic challenges, and meeting the target of ensuring economic growth by domestic demand expansion and economic restructuring. Convenedat a time when the Party thoroughly studies the scientific outlook on development, the teleconference was intended to urge State Treasuries to act promptly to harmonize their minds with the policies laid down by the State Council to address the global financial crisis and maintain sustainable economic growth, to thoroughly implement the specific measures by which the State Treasuries can serve the economic growth, and to give full play to the important role of the financial sector in promoting growth.
Su Ning pointed out that managing State Treasury is one of the important mandates of the PBC. As a critical part of the execution of state budget, State Treasuries are playing an increasingly significant role in the country’s economic and social development. A strengthened role and improved level for State treasury service are thus of great significance in facilitating the smooth delivery of monetary and fiscal policies, improving the efficiency of fiscal fund disbursement,expanding domestic demand and, in general, promoting economic and social development.
Su said that State Treasuries have made remarkable achievements in innovation and in providing public service. State Treasuries at various levels have greatly enhanced their ability to offer more service programs through improved means to the public by pressing ahead with IT projects, and have ensured the security of fiscal funds through improved internal control and strengthened supervision and management. In coordination with the government and relevant authorities, State Treasuries have quickened their steps in innovation by directly processing the transfer of disaster relief funds and agro-linked subsidizing funds, which plays an active role in implementing state policies and safeguarding state budget execution. The Deputy Governor pointed out that direct processing of government fund transfers by State Treasuries facilitates fund flow, removes intermediary links, streamlines procedures and helps the funds arrive more quickly. The whole process is secure and transparent, and is easy to supervise, thus effectively addressing the problems resulting from the previous level-by-level fund disbursement approach,such as delaying, misappropriation, embezzling of government funds or even corruption.The new approach ensures the security of government funds, saves administrative costs, serves the interests of the public and upholds the government’s reputation. The approach is recognized and welcomed by local governments at the grassroots level, the public and the receivers of these funds, and has playedan important role in maintaining social stability, promoting social harmony,and safeguarding economic development.
Su urged that, as one of the important windows of the central bank in providing financial service,State Treasuries should take the opportunity of implementing the policy of beefing up financial support to economic growth to actively engage in the overall improvement of financial service and promote steady and relatively rapid economic growth. State Treasuries should summarize work experiences and continue to innovate new measures of treasury service, accelerate the application of information technology, continue to broaden the scope of government subsidies which are directly disbursed from State Treasuries, such as agro-linked subsidies and disaster-relief subsidies, ensure that the funds for welfare programs, infrastructure construction, eco-environment protection and post-disaster construction are directly channeled to end users, ensurein-time and full-value fund delivery, optimize the treasury procedure of tax rebate of imports and exports, expedite tax rebate fund transfer from State treasury accounts to the accounts of relevant enterprises, so as to promote economic andsocial development. First, State Treasuries at various levels should be unifiedin thinking, strengthen organization and leadership and speed up innovation.Second, State Treasuries should expand the scope of directly disbursed state treasury funds. Third, efforts should be made to study and optimize export tax rebate procedure and accelerate the establishment of a green passage for exporttax rebate. Fourth, cash management of State Treasuries at local levels should be steadily improved to support the implementation of the relatively loose monetary policy. Fifth, the application of information technology should be accelerated to support the innovation of State Treasuries service. Sixth, thetreasury bonds market in the rural area should be actively tapped in an effort to promote the building of a new socialist countryside. Seventh, further efforts should be made to guard against risks posed to State Treasuries funds.
Presidents of the PBC branches in Nanjing, Ji’nan, Wuhan,Chengdu, as well as PBC sub-branches in Changsha and Ningbo shared their experiences in treasury service innovation at the meeting.
