The Fourth Session of the 13th Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference convened in Hefei on February 4th. During a plenary speech delivered on behalf of the Anhui Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, Wang Lei, a member of the Anhui Provincial CPPCC Committee, Vice President of the Anhui General Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of Anhui Taohuayuan Industrial Co., Ltd., stated: "We must enable private enterprises to invest with confidence, willingness, and capability, thereby further invigorating private investment."

Wang Lei indicated that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed stimulating private investment vitality, increasing the proportion of private investment, and strengthening market-driven effective investment growth momentum. In recent years, the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have thoroughly implemented the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee, persistently using market-based methods and reform measures to stimulate private investment vitality. The business environment has been continuously optimized, with Anhui's market, legal, innovation, and government service environments all ranking among the top nationally in the 2025 evaluation of the business environment by ten thousand private enterprises.

Affected by multiple factors, the momentum of private investment in Anhui Province has somewhat weakened. From January to November last year, Anhui's private investment decreased by 6.8% year-on-year, a decline 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average. The primary reasons are threefold: Firstly, the intertwining issues of "overdue payments" and "unstable expectations." Corporate accounts receivable have swelled with extended collection cycles, while some government subsidy policies suffer from short durations, untimely fund disbursement, and uncertain continuity, undermining long-term corporate investment planning and leading to reluctance to invest. Secondly, the coexistence of "internal competition" and "unclear pathways." Industries ranging from catering and construction to emerging sectors like photovoltaics and energy storage are mired in varying degrees of internal competition. In new future industry tracks, companies often face practical problems such as high technological risks and unclear application scenarios, leading to an unwillingness to invest. Concurrently, there is an overlay of "factor constraints" and "implicit barriers." Some enterprises encounter high costs or obstacles in acquiring production factors, coupled with implicit market access barriers or unfair treatment, often resulting in a desire but inability to invest.

To address these challenges, Wang Lei proposed creating a predictable environment to break the dilemma of "daring not to invest." He suggested intensifying efforts in government integrity construction, comprehensively utilizing policies such as inspections, audits, and special bonds to vigorously investigate and settle government arrears outside official accounts, promoting source-level debt repayment to solve interlinked payment defaults. Regulating and developing supply chain finance, promoting accounts receivable pledge financing and securitization to leverage market forces for debt resolution. Strengthening policy continuity and stability, increasingly replacing one-off subsidies with sustained institutional mechanisms, and establishing "advance notice periods" and "transition periods" for major policy adjustments to avoid abrupt changes and one-size-fits-all approaches. Simultaneously, establishing third-party evaluation mechanisms for policy effectiveness and corporate feedback channels, enabling businesses to form stable expectations that "long-term investments yield returns."

"Broadening the scope for returns is essential to resolve the problem of 'unwillingness to invest'," Wang Lei recommended. He advocated for a comprehensive crackdown on internal competition, prioritizing comprehensive evaluation methods based on "technology, quality, service, and brand," and restricting the application scope of "lowest-bid wins" tendering. Supporting leading enterprises to jointly establish industrial alliances with upstream and downstream partners based on quality commitments and reasonable profits, thereby reducing disorderly price undercutting within the supply chain. Encouraging private capital to increase investment in new quality productive forces, emerging service industries, and new types of infrastructure, guiding private investment to actively participate in innovation concerning key common technologies, frontier-leading technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technologies. Annually releasing a list of scenario innovation initiatives and application demonstration projects, clarifying commercialization pathways and return mechanisms, and promptly applying scientific and technological innovations to specific industries and supply chains to create greater space for private investment development.

Wang Lei also proposed strengthening factor guarantees to unclog the bottlenecks causing "inability to invest." Enhancing the service scheduling for key factor guarantees, benchmarking against Zhejiang Province, and increasing the proportion of factor guarantees—such as land use, energy consumption, and funding—for Anhui's private investment projects from "three 70%s" to "three 80%s." Increasing support from policy funds like ultra-long-term special government bonds, central budget内 investment, and funds for "major projects and new infrastructure" for eligible private investment projects, cultivating more patient capital. Seizing the opportunity presented by the national implementation of a 500 billion yuan special guarantee plan for private investment, promoting government-backed financing guarantees for "risk sharing" and "fee reduction and credit enhancement." Expediting the introduction of implementation measures for the Private Economy Promotion Law, further refining the fair competition review mechanism, and dynamically publishing lists of precautions against improper market interventions. Advancing data transparency, process solidification, and intelligent supervision in the bidding sector, using technological penetration to break down implicit barriers, ensuring all market entities participate in competition equally, and fully unleashing the vitality of the socialist market economy.

Finally, Wang Lei suggested enhancing situation publicity to boost confidence for "wanting to invest." Establishing a常态化 mechanism for positive guidance and confidence transmission, actively communicating situational policies to the broad base of private enterprises. Enterprises need to see that Anhui's advantages—abundant innovation resources, distinct manufacturing characteristics, and vast inland hinterland—are accelerating their release, leading to increasingly numerous private investment opportunities. They need to see the accelerated development and layout of Anhui's strategic emerging industries and future industries, creating even broader space for private investment. They need to see the joint efforts with Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to advance the integrated construction of the Yangtze River Delta market access system, allowing private investment to expand into more areas. Enterprises must perceive the certainty and growth potential of developing in Anhui, transforming from "knowing the advantages" to "believing in the opportunities," thereby proactively planning and actively investing to contribute to Anhui Province's high-quality development during the "16th Five-Year Plan" period.