Local govts get more say in choice of financing tools

Local governments will be given more rights and obligations in issuing bonds in a bid to ease their debt pressure, Premier Li Keqiang announced Wednesday.

In a government work report he delivered to the nation's top legislators, Li said bonds will become a major financing mechanism for local governments this year, adding that they will have to "issue bonds and repay debt on their own".

China's local governments are generally prohibited from raising money on their own - only six provincial-level governments, including Shanghai and Guangdong, were allowed pilot bond issuances, and they were still paid for by the Ministry of Finance.