PPP (Public Private Partnership) was originally a long-term cooperation between the government and social capital that lasted for more than ten or even twenty years: social capital contributed money, effort, and services, and the government paid based on performance. Since the large-scale launch in 2014, this model has attracted more than 1 trillion yuan of investment in the past decade, improving public services to a certain extent and stimulating effective investment.

Nowadays, as projects are gradually completed and enter the operation and maintenance payment period, social capital and other resources are not paid according to the contract, but rather accumulated debts. Local governments delay acceptance, evaluation, and performance in order to reduce payment pressure. Behind it is both the reality of tight local financial income and expenditure, as well as the inertia of "new officials ignoring old accounts".

More importantly, PPP arrears are not ordinary disputes. It is tied to both corporate liquidity and government credit: in the short term, it puts pressure on corporate funds; In the medium term, it is the government's ability to fulfill its obligations and credit issues, which in turn affect market expectations; In the long run, it is a consideration of the rule of law business environment. In this regard, the policy side is not without action - the Ministry of Finance's Document No. 84 of 2025 proposes the idea of "problem oriented, classified measures, cost reduction and efficiency improvement", and some provinces and cities are also trying to issue special bonds to replace construction costs. However, these explorations are still limited to local pilot projects and have not yet formed a large-scale and institutionalized resolution mechanism.

So, in the current practical situation, how should the outstanding PPP debts be resolved?