Recently, Qingdao, Hubei and other places have taken the lead in launching the issuance of local bonds for the year 2025, marking the beginning of this year's local bond issuance campaign. According to preliminary statistics from China Securities Journal reporters, as of now, the total amount of local bonds issued and planned to be issued has exceeded 500 billion yuan, with a large proportion of new special bonds and refinancing special bonds. Experts say that the pace of local government bond issuance in the first quarter will be faster than the same period last year. The addition of special bonds will provide strong support for the construction of key projects to stabilize investment and the economy; The refinancing special bonds will mainly be used to replace implicit debts and support local governments in resolving debt risks. On January 13th, Qingdao and Hubei took the lead in launching the issuance of local bonds for the year 2025. Subsequently, multiple regions announced their issuance arrangements, with Tianjin, Guangdong, Hunan, Anhui, and other places issuing local bonds starting from January 20th. According to data from Enterprise Early Warning, as of January 16th, a total of 513.686 billion yuan of local bonds have been issued and planned to be issued in various regions, exceeding the issuance volume of 384.45 billion yuan in January last year. Experts believe that under the implementation of more proactive fiscal policies, the issuance of local bonds will be significantly prioritized in 2025. Hu Xiaoli, an analyst at Xingye Research, said that the pace of local bond issuance in the first quarter has significantly accelerated compared to the same period last year, and it is expected that the scale of local bond issuance in the first quarter will be about 2.3 trillion yuan. The optimization of the special bond management mechanism is conducive to improving the efficiency of special bond issuance and utilization, and is also expected to accelerate the pace of special bond issuance. The Chief Economist of CITIC Securities clearly believes that after the optimization of the special bond project review and management mechanism, 10 provinces and Xiong'an New Area will pilot the "self review and self issuance" of special bonds, which is expected to accelerate the issuance progress of special bonds in 2025. The issuance of new special bonds has been launched as an important tool to drive the expansion of effective investment by investing in high-value projects. As of now, the newly issued and planned special bonds amount to 1900.45 billion yuan. Multiple regions are making sufficient preparations for the project to ensure early issuance and utilization of newly added special bonds. Recently, Hubei Province issued the first batch of local government bonds worth 101.2 billion yuan for 2025, including 33.8 billion yuan of newly added special bonds. The relevant person in charge of the Hubei Provincial Department of Finance stated that the department has immediately allocated the raised funds to cities and counties, all of which will be used for the purpose of stabilizing growth, ensuring people's livelihoods, and preventing risks, and will continue to make efforts to promote high-quality social and economic development. The funds will mainly be invested in a number of high-value and targeted projects such as municipal and industrial parks, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, and transportation infrastructure, in order to stabilize the economic foundation through high-level investment and project construction, and fully guarantee a "good start" in 2025. The main person in charge of the Henan Provincial Department of Finance stated that they will adhere to early arrangements and deployments, prepare project reserves in advance, and scientifically and efficiently complete the allocation, approval, and issuance of new government debt quotas. With the improvement of the special bond management mechanism, the efficiency of fund utilization will also be enhanced. According to Luo Zhiheng, Chief Economist of Yuekai Securities, in accordance with the "Opinions on Optimizing and Improving the Management Mechanism of Local Government Special Bonds" issued by the General Office of the State Council, the "negative list" management of special bond investment areas will be implemented. In fact, this move has expanded the scope of special bond investment, which is beneficial for local governments to find suitable special bond projects, so that debt funds can quickly form physical workloads to stabilize investment and the economy. As of January 16th, the total amount of refinancing special bonds issued and planned to be issued in various regions is 223.592 billion yuan, accelerating the reform and transformation of financing platforms. The Ministry of Finance recently disclosed that in order to support local governments in resolving debt risks, the issuance of 2 trillion yuan replacement bonds in 2025 has been initiated. From last year's issuance situation, the pace of refinancing special bonds issuance was relatively fast. On November 9, 2024, the Ministry of Finance officially issued debt limits for different regions to local governments after expediting the approval process. The 2 trillion yuan replacement bonds for 2024 were all issued on December 18 of the same year. Experts believe that by 2025, the 2 trillion yuan bond quota for replacing existing implicit debt will still be issued quickly. Mingming stated that in the context of the new "combination punch" of bond issuance, bond funds will be issued on a regular basis in 2025, and it is expected that the issuance scale of refinancing special bonds to replace existing implicit debts in the first quarter will be relatively large. In the future, relevant departments will focus on the second half of the article on debt restructuring. Wang Jianfan, Director of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, stated that he will guide local governments to establish a stock implicit debt replacement ledger, complete and accurate registration of bond issuance, use, principal and interest repayment, and ensure that all funds are managed, accounted for, and operated in a dedicated account. At the same time, we will continue to maintain a high-pressure regulatory posture of "zero tolerance", leverage the collaborative regulatory efforts of departments, and seriously deal with issues such as illegal and irregular borrowing and false resolution of implicit debts. Accelerate the reform and transformation of financing platforms, resolutely block local illegal and irregular borrowing channels, and promote sustainable development. (New Society)