On December 22, PPP Regulated Development Symposium, the 1st Meeting of the 1st Council of China PPP Consultative Agency Forum was held at Jin Long Tan Hotel. Yi Yao and Songjun Zhai, partners of East & Concord Partners, attended the symposium as special guests from council member units.

China PPP Consultative Agency Forum, vigorously advocated by China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, was initiated and jointly established by East & Concord, and other consulting units, law firms and accounting firms that are engaged in PPP consultative services. It aims to bring deeper reform of the investment and financing system in the infrastructure field in China, promote the development of PPP professional consultative capabilities of China, and provide powerful professional supportive services for the sustainable development of PPP cause in China. East & Concord is one of the 64 council members of the forum.

The event attracted over 120 PPP experts and scholars from different industries. During the event, Zhifeng Han, deputy head of the Investment Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, An Wang, general manager of China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, Shouqing Wang, chief expert and professor of Tsinghua University PPP Research Center, Yongxiang Jin, general manager of Beijing Dayue Consulting Co., Ltd., among other leading figures in the PPP industry delivered keynote speeches. The council member units deliberated before adopting China PPP Consultative Agency Forum Articles of Association (Draft), draft proposal to include new members to the forum.

During the symposium, the special guests from each and every council member unit explored hot topics in the PPP field such as healthy operation of the PPP mode, PPP project capital penetration supervision, mechanism with a lasting supervisory effect on the PPP consultative service market. Songjun Zhai, partner of East & Concord, attended the symposium and delivered an impromptu speech.

In his speech, Songjun Zhai highlighted the intimate cooperative relationship between legal service agencies and consulting agencies; and that when lawyers provided services for the government, they shall involve themselves in consultative services at the development stage of project implementation plans to control the PPP projects from the perspective of overall compliance instead of simply revising or improving project contracts. Song Zhai then shared his practice experience in asset securitization which was much concerned by people, and introduced the history of asset securitization and capital pooling in PPP asset securitization. Lastly, Songjun Zhai stressed that the biggest challenge in PPP project consulting is to thoroughly master all the potential problems and difficulties in different stages of project financing, construction, and operation before providing comprehensive consulting services.

Lastly, he expressed hope that PPP Regulated Development Symposium, the 1st Meeting of the 1st Council of China PPP Consultative Agency Forum can be concluded successfully, China PPP Consultative Agency Forum can provide powerful professional supports for China’s PPP undertaking, and China PPP Consultative Agency continues to develop.