Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Construction Industry" proposed to improve the four types of deposit management systems reserved for bidding, contract performance, project quality, and wages of migrant workers in the field of engineering construction, in 2019 six departments including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development We issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Implementation of the Project Guarantee System for Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects" and took the lead in promoting project guarantee insurance in the field of housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects.
Housing construction projects are projects that meet people’s needs for production, residence, study, public activities, etc.; municipal infrastructure construction projects are referred to as municipal projects, and various public infrastructure supporting urban life Construction falls under its category. Both play a decisive role in people's livelihood issues and urban construction, and have also become the leading field of engineering guarantee insurance.
With the accumulation of pilot work experience in the fields of housing construction and municipal infrastructure, the implementation of engineering warranty insurance in other fields of engineering construction has also been put on the agenda. The following will take Anhui, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces as examples to analyze the three development ideas of engineering warranty insurance in the field of engineering construction.
1. Anhui: Gradually marketization starting from state-owned investment projects
As the first province to issue provincial documents to promote engineering guarantee insurance, Anhui Province has used state-owned investment in housing construction and municipal It takes the lead in infrastructure engineering projects, then expands to government investment projects and state-owned investment projects, and finally gradually applies to the entire engineering construction field.
The Anhui Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Notice on the Implementation of Performance Guarantee Insurance for Construction Projects" issued in July 2015. It was clarified that it would first be carried out in Hefei, Wuhu, Bengbu, Tongling and Lu'an cities. Pilot project performance guarantee insurance for construction contracts; focus on state-owned investment construction projects (housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects), and select projects with mature conditions to carry out pilot projects first.
By 2016, the Anhui Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development expanded the pilot types and application scope of engineering guarantee insurance in the "Notice on Issues Concerning Promoting the Substitution of Letters of Guarantee for Cash Deposits to Further Reduce the Burden of Enterprises" and required all levels to Government investment projects or state-owned investment projects will pilot the bank guarantee system and guarantee insurance system first.
Then in December 2017, the Anhui Provincial Government "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Reform of Engineering Construction Management to Promote the Sustained and Healthy Development of the Construction Industry" "supported all parties involved in the construction with bank guarantees, commercial insurance, etc." When "the three-party guarantee method replaces cash deposits and reduces corporate operating costs", it is also clarified that the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will be the lead responsible unit, and the Provincial Department of Transportation and the Provincial Department of Water Resources will be the cooperating units. This decision to extend engineering warranty insurance to the entire engineering construction field was also confirmed in the "Implementation Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of Effective Private Investment and Promoting Sustained and Healthy Economic Development" in the same month.
2. Zhejiang: Gradually expand the application industry
After Ningbo was approved to become the country’s first “capital province and city first-built” insurance innovation comprehensive demonstration zone in 2014, Zhejiang Province has Ningbo is a pioneer in reform and gradually promotes engineering warranty insurance in the field of engineering construction.
In accordance with the requirements of piloting first and advancing steadily, Ningbo City issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Comprehensive Insurance for Construction Projects" in 2015, taking the lead in housing construction projects and municipal infrastructure within the administrative region of Ningbo City. In the field of engineering projects, pilot projects for comprehensive engineering insurance will be implemented. By 2017, the Ningbo Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau also issued the "Ningbo Water Conservancy Construction Project Guarantee Management Measures (Trial)", which clarified that all water conservancy construction projects that must be publicly tendered according to law are subject to engineering guarantees. The engineering guarantees can be in the form of third-party guarantees, that is, It can be submitted in the form of a bank guarantee or insurance policy. Later, in 2018, the Ningbo Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission’s “Notice on Further Promoting Comprehensive Insurance for Construction Projects in Ningbo” further allowed various types of project guarantees to be guaranteed by insurance and other methods, and relevant units must not refuse without reason.
In line with Ningbo City’s promotion ideas, when Zhejiang Province issued the “Notice on Further Improving the Project Guarantee System and Implementing Comprehensive Insurance for Construction Projects” in 2016, it still required state-owned investment in housing construction and municipal infrastructure Comprehensive insurance for construction projects will be promoted mainly for facility projects. As of June this year, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other departments’ “Notice on Reform of the Security Deposit System in the Provincial Engineering Construction Field” requires the construction, transportation, water conservancy and other industry authorities to strengthen supervision of the implementation of the security deposit system for project guarantees in this field. . This means that engineering guarantees including guarantee insurance policies have been used in construction, water conservancy, transportation and other industries, and also reveals the idea of ??promoting engineering guarantee insurance in Zhejiang Province of "housing construction and municipal infrastructure → construction, water conservancy, transportation" .
3. Guangdong: Multi-professional development in parallel, focusing on the development of electronic bidding guarantees
As early as April 2018, when the implementation of project guarantee insurance was first deployed, Guangdong Province facilitated the "About Carrying out Construction Project Guarantee" The "Notice on Insurance Related Work" requires that: Housing and urban-rural construction, transportation, water conservancy and other departments at all levels should work with relevant departments such as development and reform, human resources and social security to formulate pilot measures for guarantee insurance for this professional project based on the actual conditions of the region.
In order to implement the requirements for parallel promotion of multiple disciplines, Jiangmen Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau and other departments issued the "Notice on Carrying out Construction Project Guarantee Insurance in Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects in the City" in July 2018. The Jiangmen Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau and other departments also issued the "Notice on the Construction Project Guarantee Insurance for Jiangmen Municipal Water Conservancy and Hydropower Construction Projects" in February 2019. As of August 2020, the Jiangmen City Public Resources Trading Platform has launched electronic guarantee services in the field of construction project transactions throughout the jurisdiction. Since then, electronic bidding guarantee insurance can be applied to housing construction, municipal administration, and landscaping projects.
In fact, Shaoguan City was the first in the province to launch the electronic insurance policy system for bidding deposits as early as August 2019, enabling the construction project transaction system to be used in Shaoguan City’s bidding activities in the form of electronic insurance policies for bidding guarantees. Paying the bidding deposit opens a chapter of electronic cooperation between insurance institutions and public resource trading platforms. This also reveals Guangdong Province’s working philosophy of “focusing on the development of electronic bidding guarantee insurance in the field of public and private resource transactions”.
Anhui, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, the three major construction provinces, have different ideas for promoting engineering warranty insurance, but they all proceed steadily, based on pilot experience, and gradually improve the construction in the process of consolidating and expanding the results of the pilot Project warranty insurance mechanism. It is also expected that more regions will actively apply engineering warranty insurance to more majors based on their advanced experience in the fields of housing construction and municipal infrastructure, so as to achieve full coverage of the engineering construction field as soon as possible.