In China, the municipalities, after the land, are starting to see the sky

30 November 20242 weeks babelfish

In China one of the most popular ways to finance local governments , burdened by debt for the so-called “Special Financing Vehicles”, in a situation where local income taxes have been kept particularly low, is to expropriate land and therefore sell it to large real estate development projects.

However, with the real estate crisis, this financial method went into crisis, and the municipalities invented various financing methods, reaching the limit of extorting entrepreneurs, but in any case no system brought sufficient revenue, while it caused enormous protests.

Now here's the news: cities are starting to sell the sky to each other for low-altitude delivery drone flights!

China's first low-altitude airspace contract for franchise delivery services was concluded this week in Pingyin County, Jinan City, Shandong Province, Zaobao reported . The Jinan Public Resource Trading Center announced on Tuesday (November 26) on its official website that Pingyin County publicly sold the 30-year low-altitude economic use rights to a local company for 924 million yuan (RMB, the same below, S$171 million). The company that won the tender is completely controlled by the state so, alternatively, one might think that the whole operation was a sort of public aid

According to the tender notice, the affiliate is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the low-altitude economy during the contract period and provides services such as pilot license training and low-level airspace management. Therefore, drone delivery services will have to purchase sub-concessions from the company that manages this low altitude urban airspace and licenses for the use of drones will also have to be purchased there.

Lightweight urban delivery drones are probably the future of home deliveries. Amazon has already warned that in Italy, for example, Amazon will begin deliveries via aerial drone in 2025. Except that in Italy the airspace, even at low altitude, is managed by ENAC, which is in any case a non-economic public body. China has gone much further in privatization, allowing cities to cede even the sky.

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The article In China the municipalities, after the land, are starting to see the sky comes from Economic Scenarios .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/in-cina-i-comuni-dopo-i-terreni-stanno-iniziando-a-vedere-il-cielo/ on Fri, 29 Nov 2024 18:40:56 +0000.