Exclusive interview with National People's Congress Deputy, Li Feng, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Finance: Optimize funding policy supply and strengthen scientific financial management

During the 2026 National Two Sessions, Li Feng, a National People’s Congress delegate and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Finance, was interviewed exclusively by Securities Times. He shared the achievements and experiences of Shandong’s finance sector in expanding domestic demand, promoting consumption, effectively utilizing government investment funds, and advancing comprehensive pilot work on scientific financial management.

Optimizing Funding Policies to Boost Consumption

Securities Times Reporter: Shandong is a populous province and a major consumer market. What experiences can you share regarding how Shandong’s finance supports boosting consumption?

Li Feng: Shandong’s finance department has always prioritized boosting consumption, focusing on strengthening funding and policy support. We mainly support areas that benefit people’s livelihoods and promote consumption, aiming to enhance consumer momentum and deliver tangible benefits to the people.

For example, we implement policies for replacing old appliances with new ones, allowing residents to enjoy policy dividends promptly. Based on factors like total population, regional GDP, vehicle ownership, and work performance, Shandong’s finance department allocates long-term special national debt funds to cities in a timely manner. We establish a sharing mechanism for the 15% matching funds that local governments should bear, raising funds through multiple channels to reduce the repayment pressure on grassroots levels. Additionally, we have set up a pre-allocated fund mechanism, providing up to 80% of the pre-allocated amount to sales companies of appliances and mobile phones, easing their capital pressure. Under the strong guidance of fiscal funds, the old-for-new policy has been fully unleashed in Shandong, directly driving rapid growth in key product consumption. In 2025, retail sales of communication equipment, household appliances, audio-visual equipment, and new energy vehicles above designated size increased by 29.8%, 12%, and 8.7%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Moreover, policies have also spurred the rapid development of industries such as new energy vehicle manufacturing and the “old dismantling” and “old collection” sectors.

Another example is ensuring service needs for the elderly and children, aiming to stimulate new consumption growth points. In elderly care, in 2025, the provincial finance allocated 1.2 billion yuan to pilot subsidies for middle-to-severely disabled elderly care services, issuing 530,000 consumption vouchers—ranking first nationwide. In childcare, the provincial finance allocated 5.27 billion yuan, providing parenting subsidies of 3,600 yuan per child annually for eligible infants under three years old. It also allocated 780 million yuan to gradually implement free preschool education, benefiting about 880,000 children across the province, effectively reducing family childcare costs and stimulating related consumption demand.

Building a Closed-Loop Management System for Government Investment Funds

Securities Times Reporter: Government investment funds are important policy tools to support industrial development and technological innovation. Can you introduce how Shandong’s finance makes good use of these funds? How is government investment fund management handled?

Li Feng: Shandong’s government investment funds were established relatively early. Through years of practice, their policy functions have been continuously strengthened, providing strong support for high-quality development across the province. By the end of 2025, the province had set up 211 funds with participation, invested in 1,948 projects totaling 243.3 billion yuan, and mobilized 582.4 billion yuan in social capital. Shandong’s provincial government-guided funds have ranked among China’s top three in the China Government Guidance Fund Rankings (Qingke) for ten consecutive years.

Focusing on the full process of “raising funds, investing, managing, and exiting,” Shandong’s finance has built a closed-loop management system to ensure the healthy and compliant development of funds.

In budget management, all government contributions are included in the budget, strengthening precise coordination between budget allocations, fund establishment, and contributions to prevent idle or wasted fiscal resources.

In risk control, we have established comprehensive mechanisms for fund management, treasury systems, project selection, and investment decision-making, enhancing intelligent and digital supervision, improving performance evaluation results, and strictly safeguarding fiscal funds.

In exit management, we supervise and guide fund managers to improve exit policies and clarify exit plans. We have established a “rolling investment” mechanism, allowing government contributions and returns to be reinvested into fund development, creating a virtuous cycle.

Moving forward, Shandong’s finance will continue to improve policy systems, promote project sharing, deepen financial and fiscal coordination, and enhance the market-oriented, professional, and legal operation of funds.

Creating a Model of Scientific Financial Management in Shandong

Securities Times Reporter: As one of only two provinces nationwide to pilot comprehensive scientific financial management, can you share the pilot’s achievements? What are the next steps for accelerating the work?

Li Feng: In 2025, Shandong made the comprehensive pilot of scientific financial management a top priority, implementing 60 specific reform measures. Through holistic planning and systematic promotion, we have advanced the pilot work significantly.

After a year of effort, the pilot has gained momentum and achieved many innovative results. For example, we explored implementing a “345” zero-based budgeting reform method, which involves first evaluating whether each expenditure is necessary, then determining the amount, and finally deciding how to allocate funds. Based on this, we follow four principles of prioritization—“balance,” “urgency,” “efficiency,” and “effectiveness”—and establish “three guarantees” and “debt repayment, public services, industrial development, key projects, and government operations”—forming five key lists. This approach effectively breaks the rigid expenditure patterns and improves budget management quality and efficiency. We also launched a financial and fiscal coordination enhancement initiative, leveraging state-owned financial capital to turn eight provincial financial enterprises into the main force of financial-fiscal linkage. By 2025, these enterprises had invested 40.6 billion yuan, issued 132.4 billion yuan in loans, and provided 115.8 billion yuan in policy guarantees across 16 cities, supporting the formation of a financial enterprise alliance with over 160 members. This platform-based resource integration and market-oriented mechanism have injected continuous financial “water” into high-quality economic development. We also pioneered a new performance management model focusing on “core + quick review and quick use,” breaking away from traditional goal-setting constraints, emphasizing project essence and core indicators for clear objectives and rapid, accurate evaluations. Additionally, we implemented a “bottom-line elimination” performance evaluation system, involving self-assessment, departmental ranking, and fiscal review, to compare project performance horizontally and guide departments to optimize resource allocation.

In the coming year, Shandong will further deepen the comprehensive pilot of scientific financial management by refining fiscal and tax reforms, promoting project sharing, and strengthening fiscal-financial coordination, aiming to introduce more leading and landmark reform measures, and continuously improve the systematization, precision, standardization, and rule of law in fiscal management, contributing more “Shandong solutions” to national financial governance.