国际投资协定透明度要求变化及其启示 ——以美国实践为考察对象

以美国BIT为代表的国际投资协定在透明度条款以及其他条款涉及透明度的规定中通过加强公众参与程度显著提升了透明度要求。这一变化是投资仲裁实践、国内贸易立法以及市民社会诉求合力作用的结果。透明度要求的提高一方面凸显了专业性社会组织对国际投资立法与实践的影响,另一方面则反映了美国借此维护本国利益的实质。对此,中国在对外投资协定的签署与实践中需要审慎对待透明度要求,同时加强本国专业性社会组织的培育和发展。     

央行前瞻性指引与提升政策透明度

金融危机中,许多发达国家央行致力于提升政策透明度,在货币政策目标分析和政策对外沟通方面取得了进步。文章介绍了前瞻性指引的概念,分析了美国、日本、英国和欧洲央行实施新一轮前瞻性指引的内容及其引发的讨论,并简析了未来前瞻性指引的运用空间。     

THE SUBSTANCE OF ACCOUNTING FOR PUBLIC‐PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

This article evaluates Public‐Private Partnerships (PPP) accounting practice and the related financial accounting and reporting requirements. Governments across the world are seeking to access private finance to improve public infrastructure. Accounting for PPPs has encountered many difficulties, one of which is the practice by which PPPs are not accounted for as fixed assets on the balance sheet of either the public sector client or the private sector operator. Accounting for PPPs has grown in importance at a time of transition from national Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Under UK GAAP, both client and operator accounting adopt the reasoning – familiar from leasing standards – of the allocation of risks and rewards between the parties to determine the party which should recognize the fixed asset on its balance sheet. The gap in IFRS with regard to operator accounting has been filled by the interpretation IFRIC 12 on service concession agreements: this moves the reasoning from risks and rewards to control, familiar from consolidation standards. The UK Treasury and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) have required/proposed the adoption of the mirror‐image treatment of IFRIC 12. In most, but not all, cases, control will be assessed to rest with the client, which will recognize property, plant and equipment, and not with the operator, which will recognize either a financial asset or an intangible asset on the basis of an assessment of which party bears the majority of risks and rewards. Under both UK GAAP and IFRS, accounting policy choices are strongly influenced by, for the client, governmental control frameworks, and for the operator, by the implications for the profile of distributable profits and for taxation. An important public policy issue is that the national accounts, which for European Union member states must comply with European System of Accounts 1995, will remain on a risks and rewards basis. It is these numbers that will be used in assessments of macro‐fiscal policy and fiscal risks, notwithstanding that the Eurostat version of risks and rewards is even more open to manipulation than were the national financial reporting standards.