Problems and suggestions on the reform of geological prospecting team

(Henan Nonferrous Metals Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450052)

"Geological exploration is the pioneering and basic work of national economic construction, serving the whole process of economic construction and social development. The geological prospecting team has made important contributions to China's socialist construction and still shoulders important tasks in the new stage of building a well-off society in an all-round way. " This is the overall evaluation of the geological prospecting work and the geological prospecting team in the State Council No.76 document. Since the founding of New China, through the unremitting efforts of several generations of geologists, this team has submitted a large number of geological exploration reports on energy, water resources and various solid minerals to the country, which has made the mining economy occupy a very important position in the overall economy of China and made important contributions to the national economic development and various undertakings.

In recent years, with the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, the contradiction between the serious shortage of resources and the rapid economic growth has become increasingly acute, and mineral resources have become a bottleneck restricting economic and social development. It is urgent to strengthen geological exploration and improve the guarantee ability of mineral resources. The situation requires us to pay close attention to some difficulties and problems faced by the geological exploration team, the main undertaker of geological exploration work.

First, the problems faced by the geological prospecting team at present

In recent years, with the care and support of governments at all levels, the geological prospecting team has quickly integrated into the local economy after localization, making contributions to finding mineral resources that support China's economic construction. However, there are still many difficulties and problems in the reform and development of the geological prospecting team.

1. Poor economic strength and serious shortage of funds.

The geological prospecting work has long been bound by the planned economic system, and the historical burden of the geological prospecting team is heavy. In addition, the policy stability is poor, the financial allocation base is low, and there are practical problems such as less per capita assets, a large proportion of retirees, more laid-off workers, poor working and living environment of workers, and insufficient actual investment in geological exploration. The main reasons are as follows.

(1) institutional factors. Due to the long-term production tasks and funds assigned by the state, which are earmarked for special purposes, and the geological achievements are handed over to the state and society for free, geological exploration units generally have insufficient fund accumulation, weak economic foundation, outdated equipment, less net assets available for operation and excessive capital construction liabilities, which have affected the development of geological exploration work.

(2) Input factors. After localization, with the increase of per capita salary and the general improvement of the living standard of the whole society, the expenditure of geological prospecting team personnel has been increasing, but the financial allocation has not increased simultaneously. Therefore, the expenditure of public funds such as geological exploration has decreased accordingly.

First of all, due to the policy of wage adjustment, wage expenditure has increased, and additional expenses such as welfare funds and housing provident fund have also increased. The State Council Guofa [2003] No.76 document requires that "the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government should ensure that geological exploration units enjoy the same treatment as other institutions when implementing the wage increase policy." However, many provinces allocate funds only according to the standard of about 70% of other institutions in the budget arrangement of fund adjustment funds, which leads to these units crowding out other funds to cash in capital increase.

Secondly, because the number of retirees is increasing year by year and the retirement funds are increasing too fast, the increase of these funds will also crowd out other funds. In addition, the four subsidies for retired veteran comrades (housing, energy, living and appropriate subsidies) have not been implemented so far, and veteran comrades have great opinions, which has formed unstable factors.

Third, geological prospecting units have many dangerous houses and remote locations, which is a common problem in history. At the time of localization in 2000, many geological prospecting units had not completed the task of base relocation and reconstruction of dangerous houses. After localization, most local governments have never invested capital expenditure in geological prospecting units, and the capital expenditure urgently needed by these units will also crowd out other funds.

(3) Policy factors. In order to make the geological prospecting system transition to a market economy, the State Council has successively issued documents such as Guo Ban Fa [1999] No.37 and Guo Ban Fa [2003] No.76, which clearly defined the reform direction of public geological prospecting units-localized management and enterprise management. In 2000, "localization" was quickly put in place under a single order. Many people seem to think that the only thing left in the geological prospecting team is the "enterprise". Therefore, as long as the reform of geological prospecting team is mentioned, "enterprise" will blurt out. Some people even simply understand "enterprise" as long as all geological prospecting units become enterprises, the reform of this team will be completed. This deviation in understanding is also one of the reasons for the continuous decline of geological prospecting in recent years, and mineral resources have become the bottleneck of China's economic development.

In fact, because the six policies and measures in document No.37 of the State Council Office [1999] have not been fully implemented, the hope of the reform of the geological prospecting team out of the predicament is still hovering. For example, Guo Ban Fa [1999] No.37 pointed out: "When a geological exploration unit transfers the state-funded exploration right, it is allowed to transfer part or all of the price to the state capital." This is because the management system reform of state-owned geological prospecting units is facing difficulties, and the state has given these preferential policies. However, due to the difficulty in actual operation and the long approval period, most provinces have not formulated local implementation measures like Xinjiang, so these preferential policies have not been implemented so far. This preferential policy is precisely the most effective way to solve the problem of insufficient fund accumulation and excessive historical debts of geological prospecting units.

In the case of all-in-one budget, on the one hand, the geological prospecting team has to cope with the increasing expenditure pressure, on the other hand, it has to bear the burden of mining rights maintenance fees that have increased rapidly due to local policies, resulting in the exploration rights owned by geological prospecting units nationwide being less than 1/3 of the total exploration rights. For example, exploring blank land should also charge a price; In the state-funded mineral areas, it is difficult for geological prospecting units not only to enjoy the preferential policy of transferring the price to the state according to the regulations, but also to bear the stipulation that the localities should participate in the revenue sharing of mining rights because of state investment, which has brought a heavy economic burden to the survival and development of geological prospecting teams.

These are the direct reasons for the lack of effective investment in geological exploration, and many mining areas with good prospecting prospects cannot make prospecting breakthroughs as soon as possible because of lack of funds.

2. Lack of management and technical personnel

Geological exploration is originally a very hard work, and due to policies and other reasons, employees' income is generally low. According to relevant data, in 1950s and 1960s, the per capita income of geological prospecting industry ranked second among the national 15 industries, while it is currently ranked as 14. Insufficient investment and low income have caused a serious brain drain. In addition, with more and more retirees, college graduates are unwilling to work in geological prospecting units with hard work and low income, which leads to a serious talent shortage and aging in geological prospecting teams in recent years. The shortage of human resources has become a key factor hindering the rapid development of geological exploration.

Second, suggestions to solve the above problems.

DocumentNo. [1999] No.37 issued by the State Council pointed out: "At present, geological prospecting units have less net assets available for operation, outdated equipment and many retirees, which makes the reform difficult. The central and local governments should give necessary financial support and policy support to the reform of the management system of geological prospecting teams. " To this end, we make the following suggestions.

1. Incorporate geological exploration into the government's 11th Five-Year Plan.

It has become an urgent task for the long-term and sustainable development of the national economy to strengthen the geological exploration of strategic mineral resources, find out the mineral resources reserves that support China's economic development as soon as possible, and ease the resource bottleneck. Therefore, it is suggested that geological exploration should be included in the eleventh five-year plan of the government to raise people's awareness of mineral resources and help improve the degree of protection of mineral resources. At the same time, because the geological prospecting team has always been the main force of geological exploration, it can further arouse people's attention to the reform and development of geological prospecting system.

2. Further implement a series of preferential policies of the state for the geological prospecting team.

According to the spirit of the document 19991February 15 andNo. the State Council Guofa [2003] No.76, the following issues should be implemented as soon as possible.

(1) financial departments at all levels should treat state-owned geological prospecting units and other institutions equally, and fully arrange budget funds for bid adjustment and promotion and wage subsidies; Bring retirees into the unified mode of socialized management of public institutions.

(2) DocumentNo. Guo Ban Fa [2003] No.76 requires: "The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government should actively support and strive to solve the problem of excessive debts in infrastructure construction of geological prospecting units that have implemented localized management." Therefore, the infrastructure construction of geological prospecting units should be included in the annual budget of local finance to solve the problem of excessive debt in infrastructure construction of geological prospecting units.

(3) Delegate the examination and approval authority of transferring the mining right price to state-owned assets to the provincial government according to a certain amount of funds, or formulate implementation measures in line with the characteristics of each province as soon as possible to improve work efficiency and implement the State Council's preferential policies for geological prospecting units.

(4) Due to the difficulties of the geological prospecting team and the heavy historical burden, the next investment system should be operated according to the mode of "constant base number and incremental reform", which is a feasible way to steadily promote the reform of the geological prospecting team.

In a word, it is suggested that the government should increase its support for the geological prospecting team in terms of policies and funds, implement various preferential policies, get rid of the heavy historical burden, go into battle lightly, and increase the intensity of geological exploration, so as to make greater contributions to solving the bottleneck problem of mineral resources to national economic development and lay the necessary foundation for the reform of the geological prospecting system in the future.

Brief introduction of the author

He is the deputy director of the Construction Committee, the director of Henan Nonferrous Metals Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, and a senior economist.