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NOT: A New Way to Get Things Done

The 29th Beijing Olympic Games will commence on August 8, 2008, and all the Olympic venues that will be used for the Games have been completed. But how many people realize that new innovations were used to help finance them, specifically avoiding the traditional fully government-funded approach?

Instead, those responsible for building the venues made full use of a “project legal person bidding system” and an “Olympic construction concession mode” to attract investments through multiple financing channels, such as the BOT (build-operate-transfer) funding mechanism used in the National Indoor Stadium and Olympic Village projects. The tender was won by the Beijing Urban Construction Investment & Development Company Limited Commonwealth and its construction is conducted by Guoao Investment & Development Company Limited. These projects are leading the way in establishing a new mode for developing sports venues and real estate projects, thus setting a possible example for future stadium and public facilities projects.

The New Financing Mode

Under BOT, a government confers some public projects that would usually rely solely on governmental funding to private investors instead. The private investors are held responsible for financing, constructing, operating, managing proceeds and maintenance within a certain period, while promising to deliver projects to a local government without any charges when the BOT period expires. It is a creative construction mode that relies on systematic investments and financing channels. Since the 1980s, BOT has become more widely recognized as a way to efficiently develop urban infrastructures in China.

Through BOT, a government can solve fiscal problems in public construction and effectively use social (public) capital and speed up public infrastructural construction in cities and rural areas. In addition, the involvement of private capital tends to enhance capital use efficiency and accountability in the expenditure of public funds. Public products of a much higher quality are created when advanced construction is used, guided by project managers with good operations experience. For private investors, using BOT provides suitable returns to investment and years of stable operations and economic returns.

Binding Tendering of National Indoor Stadium Project plus the Olympic Village

History shows us that some Olympic Games have generated limited immediate returns for their investors. So investors might have been reluctant to get involved in the 2008 Games if the Beijing Municipal Government had initiated tenders for each single project. This was particularly true with the Olympic Village project, because it was not sufficiently attractive to investors as a BOT project. So the Beijing Municipal Government, for purpose of fully using Olympic Games venues after the Games, made a creative decision. It decided the athletes’ residences in the village would become commercial housing after the Games. It also decided to link the Olympic Village project with the National Indoor Stadium project to make it a more profitable and attractive project, using conventional real estate financing for the Olympic Village and BOT for the indoor stadium projects. Possible risks in the Olympic Village could be offset by expected revenues from the indoor stadium project. This made the project attractive to investors. The bidder, by setting up a project company, obtained the right to design, finance, invest in, construct, operate, maintain and deliver the National Indoor Stadium and the right to lease and sell units within the Olympic Village. In fact, most of the units are already sold.

Such tendering helped create a win-win result: through binding agreements, the two projects could be built without the Beijing Municipal Government investing even a penny. The government was assured that the venues would be built on schedule and would operate as specified during the Games. Financing problems have been solved, while advancing real estate practice and management in Beijing. Investors assumed some risks in expectation of profitable returns at both the Olympic Village and possibly from the National Indoor Stadium.

Still, new financing modes have their own problems, and we will continue to discuss these in future columns.

北京奥运会场馆建设新模式实施中需要注意的法律问题

文/王霁虹 谢颐

一、 特许经营是一种新的融资建设模式

特许经营模式又称“BOT模式”（英文缩写为Build—Operate—Transfer，即建设、经营、转让），其基本含义是：政府通过特许权协议将本该或习惯上由政府自身投资经营的具有公益性质的基础设施项目或其它相关项目，授权私有资本投资者在一定期限内进行融资、建设、经营、收益、维修，并在约定的年限届满后，由投资者将特定项目无偿移交给当地政府的一种系统的投资和融资的建设方式。BOT模式是20世纪80年代以来在全球兴起的一种新型投资方式，作为项目融资方式中的一种，近年来在中国各城市的基础设施建设领域逐渐得到越来越普遍的利用。

通过采用BOT模式，政府吸引社会资本参与公共基础设施建设，解决了政府公共建设方面的财政缺口，加快了城市乡村公共基础设施建设速度。同时，私有资本的参与还提高了资金的使用效率，减少了政府腐败与浪费的机会，而且可以吸引到比较先进的建设和运营技术经验，为社会提供更高质量的公共产品。对于私有资本投资者来说，可以取得公共基础设施几年甚至几十年的运营权，而公共基础设施的运营与获利是比较稳定的，投资者基于此便可以获得比较稳定的投资回报。

二、 国家体育馆与奥运村捆绑开发模式

分析历届奥运会主办国家的经验不难发现，奥运场馆建成后实现盈利的很少，因此，若以国家体育馆作为一个单独的特许经营项目是很难吸引投资者投资建设和运营的。因此，为了做好奥运设施的赛后利用，北京市人民政府决定将奥运村作为一个房地产开发项目，在奥运会期间提供给各国运动员居住，在奥运会后作为商品房销售。如果将国家体育馆特许经营项目与盈利前景较好的奥运村项目捆绑在一起作为一个整体项目招标，则可以起到用奥运村项目的盈利弥补国家体育馆经营亏损的良好效果，从而大大加强对投资者的吸引力。

由此，北京市人民政府将国家体育馆和奥运村这两个奥运设施组合成为一个整体项目进行招标，由中标人成立项目公司，取得国家体育馆的特许经营权以及奥运村的开发建设权，负责国家体育馆的设计、投资、融资、建设、运营、维护及移交和奥运村的设计、投资、融资、建设及经营租售。

通过这种捆绑招标的模式，达到各方共赢的效果。一方面，通过实行奥运村与国家体育馆特许经营的捆绑，解决了政府建设体育场馆和奥运村所面临的财政资金压力与融资难问题。在不投入一分钱的情况下完善了奥运设施的建设，保证了国家体育馆与奥运村在北京奥运会开幕前顺利投入使用，同时也进一步促进了北京市房地产业的发展。另一方面，对于投资者而言，取得奥运村的开发权，不仅可以通过房地产开发获得丰厚的利润回报，弥补建设运营国家体育馆可能产生的亏损，同时，通过今后良好的经营管理，还可以由此而获得收益。

但是，这种新模式在实践中也遇到了一些新问题亟待解决，在今后几期我们将向您详细介绍这种模式在实践操作中会出现的一些具体而特殊的问题。