Like other countries in the world, the automobile industry, water transport and air transport in the Federal Republic of Germany have also developed rapidly, which makes the leading position of railways in the transportation market decline rapidly. During the period of 1950- 1990, the market share of railway freight dropped from 60% to 29%; In terms of passenger transport, the market share dropped from 36% to 6%. This has led a profitable enterprise to become a state-owned company with increasing losses. The debt of German railways increased from 1970 to 139 billion Deutsche Mark to 1990 to 47 billion Deutsche Mark. The Federal Ministry of Transport predicts that the debt and deficit of German railways will be higher and higher, and may increase to more than 80 billion marks by 1996. However, as a state-owned enterprise, Deutsche Bahn is too large and monopolized, and the railway organization is a government organization, which is subject to the dual constraints of serving the public and budget law.
German railway should run like a government agency, but it should run like an enterprise, be responsible for its own profits and losses, and at the same time produce a good return on investment. In order to change this unfavorable situation, German railway reform began the17th attempt.
2. The purpose of the reform
The purpose of German railway reform is to get rid of the predicament of losses in the market economy competition and become an independent profit-making service enterprise. Specific objectives include: Germany will continue to increase the privatization of state-controlled railway enterprises through the joint-stock system, which can reduce the burden of state finance on railway enterprises; Decompose functions, open the market, and create fair conditions for cooperation and competition between railways and other transportation departments; In the face of increasingly fierce market competition, financing ability will become an important aspect to increase the competitiveness of enterprises. Through reform and joint-stock management, the fund-raising ability of railway enterprises can be enhanced.
3. The process of reform?
The whole reform step of German railway is implemented according to the plan of 10, which is divided into two stages and four steps.
The first stage: Deutsche Bahn Co., Ltd. will prepare for the second stage of structural reform and the establishment of a statutory company within five years. This stage is divided into three steps:
* In the first step, from 1994 to 65438+ 10, the former East German National Railway and the West German Federal Railway merged to form the Federal Railway Assets Bureau. This is a transitional form. At this stage, the state monopoly nature and management mode of enterprises have not fundamentally changed, but the structure and management mode have gradually changed, mainly in reducing the number of employees and improving management ability; At the same time, employees began to adapt to the new company goals through training, and 72,000 railway employees participated in the training. At that time, the news media reported that this was the largest training activity in European economic history.
* Second, according to the provisions of Chapter 87 of the Basic Law and the Federal Law, deutsche bahn ag and the corresponding Federal Railway Administration will be established, and the Federal Railway Assets Administration will remain for enterprise management, adjudication and administration. In order to achieve the goal of railway reform, the railway transportation volume has been increased, and more than one work plan including 100 has been adopted to improve the business routine and improve the efficiency of the company.
* The third step is to set up four branches according to the basic articles of association of Deutsche Bahn, namely: railway infrastructure branch (including transfer station and railway network construction), short-distance passenger service company, long-distance passenger service company and freight company. According to the law, the reform of dividing deutsche bahn ag into four subsidiaries must be completed by 1999 at the latest. Due to the debt problem, the railway joint-stock company is still wholly owned by the state at this stage. ?
The second stage is the fourth step of German railway reform, and its main task is the structural reform prepared for it in the first stage. Structural reform is mainly carried out through division in accordance with the company law. Deutsche Bahn is a multi-level group company managed by a holding company according to the requirements of the Company Law. Deutsche Bahn is the parent company of this group company. The Company and the joint stock limited company separated from the Company, as well as further affiliated companies and other companies that hold indirect equity of the Company and have the right to directly participate. This group company is divided into the management department of the group company and five branches, and each branch, as a joint stock limited company, has the right to run its own business independently. At the same time, these five companies are also management companies and participating companies assigned to them. According to the plan, after 1999, deutsche bahn ag was dissolved according to law, and the state-owned holding was dissolved. The five companies operate independently and independently. ?
4. What is the effect of the reform?
The reform has injected vitality into German railways, which are developing in a healthy direction. In the first five years of German railway reform, railway enterprises made good achievements. The railway transportation volume increased 1993-1998, and the number of people transported increased 10.7%. Passenger traffic increased from14.28 million in 1993 to15.99 million in 1998, an increase of12.0%; The freight volume increased from 1993 to 1998, an increase of 14.9%. The turnover of 1998 was 30 188 million Deutsche Mark, which was higher than that of 1993 of 2,728.5 million Deutsche Mark 100.6%. The annual turnover of Deutsche Bahn 1999 was DM 30 billion, which was 1.4% higher than that of 1998. Due to the price problem, the labor productivity increased by 1 13%. Generally speaking, Deutsche Bahn has improved the loss state of enterprises through reform. The goal set before the reform, that is, to reduce the burden on the country by 10, has been achieved at present, and it is even better than expected. ? 1, step by step The phased reform of German railways has been implemented in a gradual way.
According to the German railway system itself, during the period of 1949- 1990, German railways have made 16 reform attempts, but none of these attempts can save the railway from dying. It's time to take extreme measures. 17 railway reform has made a ten-year plan, which is divided into two stages and four steps. This reform process clearly tells us that German railway reform has adopted a steady and gradual reform strategy. After the merger of the East-West German Railway, the federal government has a controlling stake in the national railway, which is realized through the management of the Railway Assets Bureau. Subsequently, the functions of government and enterprise were strictly separated, and the Federal Railway Administration and Deutsche Bahn AG were established. Then the railway joint-stock company is reformed internally to establish a truly independent enterprise operating in accordance with the company law. The separation of government and enterprise, the separation of track and transportation, and the further separation of transportation service functions to make them professional are the basic projects for the opening of German railway market.
2. Strict separation of government and enterprise functions?
The separation of government and enterprise in German railways is gradual. After the merger of the East-West German Railway, the Federal Railway Assets Bureau was established. Later, according to the German Basic Law and Federal Law, the management function of the Federal Assets Bureau was separated from the Ministry of Commerce, and the enterprise management part separated from the Federal Railway Assets Bureau formed the German Railway Service Company. The Federal Railway Assets Bureau remained, and its public management function was decentralized again, and the Federal Railway Bureau was established. ?
As the highest administrative body of the railway system, the main responsibilities of the Federal Railway Administration include:
(1) Railway technical and financial supervision;
(2) Issuing a business license;
(three) to perform the right of adjudication and supervision according to law;
(four) the signing of the enterprise track construction and financing agreement;
(5) Propose and formulate the track construction plan;
(six) to decide on the railway infrastructure construction plan. It is reported that in recent years, the Federal Railway Administration has not changed much, but it has added an extremely important function, which is to ensure the competitiveness of the railway market. They believe that monopoly power is often greater than market power. In order to maintain the competitiveness of the railway market, the government must intervene to prevent the original monopolist from having too much dominant position. ?
As a left-behind institution, the main tasks of the Federal Railway Assets Bureau are: the management and use of non-railway real estate; Management and settlement of debts; Treatment and management of legal persons (civil servants); Maintain and expand the social facilities of enterprises. In the reform and development in recent years, the biggest role or contribution of the Federal Railway Assets Bureau to the reform is to separate and trust the debts of railway companies, and also set up a special Federal Debt Bureau to pay off and deal with the old debts of German railways with government taxes. ?
3. Separation of network and transportation, decentralization and professional development of service functions?
The separation of network and transportation is an important mode of EU's basic field reform. The railway network is independent of the state-owned railway rights, realizing national construction, maintenance, control and management, decentralizing the right to use railway tracks and its transportation services, and making it market-oriented. On this basis, the functions are further decomposed to make the railway transportation service professional. Through the decentralization of transportation services, privatization of transportation enterprises and liberalization of transportation market, the competition in railway transportation market has been realized, thus stimulating the vitality of railway enterprises.
This is the most fundamental experience that German railway reform can achieve initial success. ?
The structural reform of the second stage of German railway was carried out through the separation of functions according to the company law. Since then, from 1999 65438+ 10/0/,Deutsche Bahn Group has been divided into the management department of the group company and five branches, all of which start with DB, which is the standard name of this group company. The five companies are as follows: (dbreise &; L Touristic AG) long-distance transportation company, (DB Regio AG) short-distance/local transportation, (DB Cargo AG) freight, (DB Nets AG) railway infrastructure, (dbstation &: amp； amp； Fe vice AG) long-distance passenger station. These five companies are controlled by the group company 100%, but all five branches have the right to operate their own businesses in the form of joint stock limited companies, and there are about 200 subsidiaries under the five branches.
The relationship among group companies, five companies and more than 200 subsidiaries:?
Deutsche Bahn Group Co., Ltd. is a management form in which banks restrict each other through powerful holding management institutions. Holding and decentralization, as a complete company alliance system, can ensure the growth of railway industry. The advantages of the above structure are: promoting cross-ownership and cross-industry innovation; Achieve the best results through the separation and parallelism of track facilities and transportation operations; Divide the market, put pressure on the network and reduce costs; Ensure the effectiveness of the whole system, while giving consideration to safety and efficiency; Make the railway industry flexible and realize clear market positioning through decentralized decision-making; Improve efficiency by clarifying the responsibilities of high-level enterprises and increasing transparency.
In June, 2000, the group company system just completed the internal supporting reform. Internal reform is a series of plans to improve competitiveness, including: personnel training, establishing a customer-oriented business policy, establishing a compact decision-making body, improving productivity, developing new products, increasing the transparency of services and costs, and establishing a cost center or cost unit accounting system; The construction of information system and so on. Among them, the most critical is the internal governance structure and decision-making mechanism of the group company. Among them, the board of directors has 9 directors. The chairmen of the five branches are all directors of the board of directors of the group company. These five directors are called the most important directors by them. Another director, from the former China Railway Corporation, is the technical director. The other two directors are managers and presidents from business circles. This structure means that every decision made by the board of directors will have an impact on the whole group company. The board of supervisors is located under the board of directors. The board of supervisors is an independent institution with 20 members, half of whom are management and half are employees. They are generally experts in finance and economics, including four politicians, including two secretaries of state, the Ministry of Finance 1 and the Ministry of Communications 1 (equivalent to deputy ministers). China has the right to have four of the 20 votes. If the votes are equal, the chairman of the board of supervisors will make a ruling.
The chairman of the board of supervisors shall be the chairman of the group company. This governance structure can make DB have the advantages of decentralized management and unified management. ?
Another outstanding feature of the governance mode of centralized holding and decentralized functions of Deutsche Bahn Group is the separation and organic combination of branches, affiliated companies and shareholding companies. In addition to their own operations, the above five branches are also designated as affiliated companies and management companies of joint-stock companies with the same industry and service functions. In the middle of 1999, Deutsche Bahn Co., Ltd. consists of 199 joint ventures, with 375 participating companies, of which 160 are direct participants and 2 15 are indirect shareholders. Among them, 80 participating companies are affiliated to Deutsche Bahn (57 directly and 23 indirectly) and 295 are affiliated to these five branches (103 directly and 192 indirectly). The business objectives of these affiliated companies determine which company (management company) will manage these affiliated companies and participating companies. If the business of a subsidiary has nothing to do with any management company, or has relations with several companies, then the subsidiary is directly managed by Deutsche Bahn. The board of directors of the management company is mainly responsible for the management of the company attached to itself:
(1) Formulate business strategies for affiliated companies;
(2) Consolidate the existing market advantages and develop new promising markets for competitive services and products;
(3) ensure the quality and profitability in the process of providing services;
(4) Planning and controlling investment.
4. Anti-monopoly and market opening
According to the German Basic Law, the Federal Republic of Germany is allowed to sell the shares of DBNets AG, which shall not exceed 49% of all the shares. Germany's Law on the Use of Railway Infrastructure, which was adopted on February 1997+ 17, also has the same constraints. In principle, the degree of state-owned shares' opening to the outside world depends on the future development of branches and group companies as a whole. There are many options for listing, but the listing of the whole group company can only be implemented after the law changes. At the same time, a joint-stock company must have a three-year profit record before it can go public.
However, at present, in Europe, the discussion about the opening of the railway market is not over. The discussion only put forward various suggestions, such as proposing to amend the European Union's directives on the collection of road use fees and the allocation of train lines by railway departments, and no new laws have yet been produced, which may be an important reason why the competition in the railway market is not as good as that in the telecommunications industry. However, people still hope that the railway reform and the reform momentum initiated by EU Directive 91440 will continue to the letter and realize the important goal of the reform-to create fair conditions for cooperation and competition between railways and other transport sectors. ?
With the combination of huge political barriers and strong desire for reform, the opening of the railway market has gone through a circuitous road-anti-monopoly and strict separation of functions within the industry, thus forming preliminary market competition among enterprises with different functions.