Following the proposal of "strengthening scientific management of finance" put forward at the 2024 National Financial Work Conference, the Central Economic Work Conference and the National Financial Work Conference held at the end of 2025 have once again deployed this work.

In 2025, the Ministry of Finance will organize 12 provinces to carry out local financial scientific management pilot projects around 11 key tasks. Zhejiang Province, as one of the pilot provinces, has undertaken 6 special pilot tasks.

One year has passed, how effective are the pilot projects in Zhejiang, and what practices are worth learning from?

In mid to late April, the reporter went to Zhejiang to investigate the pilot situation of financial scientific management. During the investigation, the reporter found that Zhejiang has established a "1+11+N" task system and work system based on the reform foundation and characteristics of various regions, and differentiated the reform tasks to 11 prefecture level cities. The task system revolves around the overall implementation plan of "one", focusing on "11" pilot tasks, systematically planning "N" reform measures, and continuously iterating and dynamically improving them in the process of reform promotion.

The Economic Observer learned that all prefecture level cities in Zhejiang Province have formulated implementation plans for scientific financial management. Based on the six pilot tasks assigned by the Ministry of Finance, they actively explore and carry out the remaining five tasks, and rely on their advantages in artificial intelligence technology to study the use of AI technology to empower scientific management, lay out AI application support systems, and actively carry out pilot projects in areas such as zero based budgeting, regular supervision of budget execution, budget performance management, and Zhejiang local reimbursement.

A relevant person from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance stated that since the implementation of the zero based budget reform in Zhejiang, the long-standing "base+growth" budget preparation method has been reversed. All budget expenditures are based on zero, guided by major decisions and deployments of the Party committee and government, and coordinated with departmental responsibilities, key work, financial performance, and other actual situations to establish a budget grading guarantee mechanism. Based on the possibility of comparative analysis of financial resources, prioritize various work tasks according to their importance and urgency, prioritize the implementation of rigid expenditures such as the "three guarantees" and government debt repayment, and focus on ensuring the major decision-making and deployment of the Party committee and government.

Zhejiang Pilot Program

By 2025, 12 provinces in China will be piloting fiscal scientific management, with Anhui and Shandong being comprehensive pilot provinces, while the remaining 10 provinces will determine key tasks based on their own work foundations to promote the pilot.

Among them, Zhejiang Province, as one of the pilot provinces for financial scientific management, undertakes 6 special pilot tasks. These six tasks are: strengthening the coordination of financial resources and budgets, implementing the requirements of tight schedules on a regular basis, deepening the reform of zero based budgeting, improving the budget management chain, enhancing budget performance management, and improving the financial system below the provincial level.

In this round of reforms in fiscal scientific management, zero based budgeting has received much attention.

Zero based budgeting refers to a scientific and modern budgeting method that is not affected by previous budget arrangements, and considers the content and expenditure standards of various expenses in the budget year item by item based on actual needs, combined with financial conditions, on the basis of comprehensive balance.

Currently, deepening the zero based budget reform as an important fiscal reform measure has been implemented throughout the country. The Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese path to modernization adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee requires deepening the zero based budget reform. Both pilot provinces for fiscal scientific management and non pilot provinces have carried out zero based budget reform.

According to the Economic Observer, since the launch of the pilot program for financial scientific management in 2025, Zhejiang Province has included zero budget and tight living in the provincial government work report, with the provincial governor taking the lead. At the same time, a provincial-level work team will be established, with the main leaders of the department taking the lead in setting up a closed-loop management mechanism that includes bi monthly scheduling, monthly inventory, and quarterly leak detection and filling.

The Finance Department of Zhejiang Province has put forward specific requirements at various occasions such as the Provincial Finance Work Conference and the Training Course for Finance Bureau Directors, emphasizing the need to strengthen reform guidance, deepen scientific management of finance, deepen zero based budget reform, strengthen budget performance management, enhance the deterrent power of financial and accounting supervision, and deepen the empowerment of artificial intelligence in financial management.

In terms of deepening the zero based budget reform, Zhejiang has focused on three tasks: comprehensively reshaping fiscal expenditure policies, establishing and improving budget grading guarantee management mechanisms, and exploring replicable and referenceable expenditure standard system models.

Local authorities have also explored many experiences, and Zhang Liang, Director of the Finance Bureau of Lanxi City, explained in detail the process of implementing zero based budget reform in Lanxi.

Lanxi City will launch a zero based budget reform starting from 2023, establishing the 16 character principle of "determining expenditures based on income, stabilizing and reducing expenditures, ensuring expenditures during pregnancy, and verifying expenditures". Subsequently, Lanxi City established a "1+10+X" working mechanism with the mayor as the leader (1 leadership group, 10 specialized teams, X as dynamic adjustment), and introduced a series of systems such as the "Lanxi City Financial Fund Management Measures" to further clarify the requirements for the allocation and use of financial funds, adjustment and adjustment, performance supervision, and additional project expenditures.

In 2024, Lanxi will further deepen the zero based budget reform and take the lead in exploring the preparation of a "five level budget" in the province, ranking fiscal expenditures according to necessity and urgency, with higher levels providing higher guarantees.

Of course, reform is not always smooth sailing. Zhang Liang said that it was difficult to advance the reform in the early stage, but the finance department insisted on following the system and rules to ensure "one size fits all" control and "zero discount" implementation, and resolutely did not open any special loopholes.

For example, Zhang Liang found through the key performance evaluation of the project that the management scale of garbage classification in each village (community) of a certain unit's implementation of urban and rural garbage classification project is not unified, the effectiveness of site classification is uneven, and the overall recycling and disposal benefits are not obvious. The capital investment has not been accurately translated into expected environmental benefits and management efficiency. This also reflects that we still have some shortcomings in practicing scientific financial management. On the one hand, based on the performance evaluation results, we reduced the budget funds for this project by 62.7%; on the other hand, we reported these issues directly to the municipal party committee and government in the form of departmental portraits and provided feedback to the unit leaders, forcing them to rectify

Experience Achievements

After more than a year of pilot practice, the scientific management of finance in Zhejiang Province has formed a series of experience and practices with Zhejiang characteristics that can be promoted and referenced.

The relevant personnel from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance mentioned above stated that Zhejiang actively uses the zero based budget concept to promote the reform of fiscal special funds. Following the path of "departmental functions core business expenditure policies", the specific allocation policies of departmental special funds are reorganized from the dimension of allocation factors, and the special funds are optimized and reconstructed. Explore and promote the management of provincial and municipal linkage project libraries, establish a full process tracking function, and standardize the management of the entire process of special fund allocation. From 2023 to 2027, a total of 145 fiscal policies will be arranged at the provincial level in Zhejiang Province to concentrate financial resources on major projects. Among them, 42 policies will be retained, 78 policies will be strengthened, 37 policies will be integrated, and 27 policies will be cancelled.

The zero based budget reform in Zhejiang has also achieved good results in local areas.

For example, since the beginning of this year, Huzhou City has broken the inertia of traditional budget preparation, taken zero based budget reform as the starting point, and carried out full cost reconstruction in the urban operation and maintenance field by improving the expenditure standard system, scientifically verifying various costs, and following the principle of "efficiency determines money": greening and maintenance focus on labor and machinery core costs from strict management, environmental sanitation and cleaning refine operational consumption standards, and reduce material procurement costs

The reform has yielded immediate results, with a total reduction of over 40 million yuan in urban operation and maintenance expenses, including municipal maintenance and green maintenance, by 2026, "said the relevant person from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance.

For example, the Finance Bureau of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, has taken the pilot of financial scientific management as a starting point, innovated the "smart public property warehouse" model, and promoted centralized management, efficient turnover, and public welfare extension of administrative assets. Promote standardization construction, connect multiple departments and reserve suppliers in the public goods warehouse, and achieve online closed-loop asset management; 'Zhe Li Public Welfare Warehouse' opens up channels for donating idle assets; Strengthening digital empowerment and intelligent asset management have reduced warehousing costs by 50%, saved procurement funds by 25%, and saved an annual expenditure of 50 million yuan; Asset visualization "one map" enables precise dispatch of emergency supplies.

Zhang Liang also stated that after several years of zero based budget reform in Lanxi, the scale of budget additions has decreased by 75.8%, the progress of budget execution at this level has increased by 7.3%, the average annual growth rate of people's livelihood expenditure has increased by 11.5%, and the proportion of tax revenue has increased from 72.8% to 81.9%, significantly improving the quality of income.