Source: School of Government
Written by: School of Government
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On January 9-10, 2015, the conference on “Financing Local Investments within a Sustainable Development Strategy for P.R. China” was held at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) in Guangzhou. The conference was jointly presented by the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research of SYSU, the School of Government of SYSU, and the Asia Research Center of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Experts from related international organizations, scholars from both China and abroad, as well as officials from the central and local levels were invited to attend the conference. The opening ceremony was hosted by Professor Meili Niu from SYSU. Dr. Ehtisham Ahmad from the Asia Research Center of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Professor Jun Ma, Vice President of SYSU, delivered opening remarks and expressed their gratitude to all the presenters and attendees.

During the two day conference, six topics were discussed: "Objectives and Fundamental Elements of a Sustainable Financing Strategy in China and Some International Perspectives", "Tax Reform to Underpin Local Infrastructure and Borrowing-especially Local Property Taxes, and Replacements for the Business Tax", "Deepening Budget System Reforms", "Some Chinese Examples of Sub-National Liabilities", "Management of Local Liabilities and International Standards-Lessons for China", "Macroeconomic Perspectives and the Legal Framework". Conference presenters and attendees shared and analyzed successful local government debt management strategies as well as the challenges and dilemmas of financial and budgetary reform worldwide.

The conference offered a great opportunity for those scholars and practitioners who research on the sustainable development of China’s local fiscal reform to share their work and concerns. The discussion was inspiring and produced many policy suggestions. In the end of the conference, participants also discussed the opportunity of future collaborations on sustainable development in Chinese local governments.