Carry out steady investment, accelerate the progress of mega-projects in multi-key areas.
150 major water conservancy projects are expected to incite 6.6 trillion yuan to invest in transportation and major agricultural investment expansion.
Carry out steady investment, accelerate the progress of mega-projects in multi-key areas.
On July 13th, the State Council held a routine briefing on the State Council policy, releasing a clear signal that 150 major water conservancy projects will be arranged, with a total investment of about 1.29 trillion yuan, which can drive direct and indirect investment of about 6.6 trillion yuan.
In fact, not only water conservancy projects, but also a large number of super-major projects, including comprehensive transportation system construction, high-standard farmland construction and modern sewage treatment system engineering, are stepping up planning and promotion. Industry experts interviewed by this reporter said that focusing on short-term benefits to the people’s livelihood, we should speed up top-level planning and increase policy efforts to promote the landing of a number of super-large projects, which is conducive to stabilizing investment and stabilizing the economy, as well as the national economy and people’s livelihood.
The the State Council executive meeting held on July 8th studied and deployed 150 major water conservancy projects in 2020-2022 to promote the expansion of effective investment and enhance the ability to prevent floods and droughts.
The briefing held by the State Council Office on the 13th further disclosed the relevant details. Su Wei, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that there are five major types of 150 major water conservancy projects, including 56 flood control and disaster reduction projects, 26 water resources optimal allocation projects, 55 irrigation water saving and water supply projects, 8 water ecological protection and restoration projects, and 5 smart water conservancy projects, among which 96 projects involve major national strategies such as coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.
In terms of investment scale, the total investment of 150 major water conservancy projects is 1.29 trillion yuan, 5 projects exceed 50 billion yuan, 4 projects range from 30 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan, and 18 projects range from 10 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan.
Not only water conservancy projects, but also focusing on making up shortcomings. Since the beginning of this year, major investment projects in many fields have been accelerated, especially a number of major projects with huge total investment have begun to accelerate planning.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and other seven departments jointly issued the Opinions on Expanding Effective Investment in Agriculture and Rural Areas and Accelerating the Shortcomings in the Field of Agriculture, Countryside and Farmers. The "Opinions" require that we should speed up the construction of major short-board projects in 11 key agricultural and rural areas such as high-standard farmland, cold chain logistics facilities for agricultural products storage and preservation, modern agricultural parks, animal and plant protection, coastal modern fishing ports, rural human settlements improvement, rural water supply security, township sewage treatment, smart agriculture and digital villages, rural roads and rural power grids.
The national video and telephone conference on expanding effective investment in agriculture and rural areas held on July 10 emphasized the need to effectively increase investment in agriculture and rural areas. The meeting pointed out that expanding effective investment in agriculture and rural areas is an urgent requirement to improve the level of modernization in agriculture and rural areas, and it is necessary to continuously increase investment around key areas and strive to reverse the downward trend of investment.
The main works of 120 bridges across the line have all been completed … … Recently, the construction of Lhasa-Linzhi section in sichuan-tibet railway has been reported frequently, and the construction of Ya ‘an section in Sichuan and Linzhi section in Tibet will soon start. The construction of other landmark major traffic projects, such as the Shenzhen-China Passage, is also accelerating.
According to the data of the Ministry of Transport, from January to May this year, the investment in transportation fixed assets was 1,022.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%. The reporter of the Economic Information Daily learned from China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China State Railway Group Co.,Ltd.") that as of July 1, the new railway line had opened 1,178 kilometers, including 605 kilometers of high-speed rail.
The person in charge of the Ministry of Construction of China State Railway Group Co.,Ltd. said that a number of key projects, such as Yinchuan-Xi ‘an high-speed railway, Hebei section of Beijing-xiong’an new area intercity railway, Hefei-Anqing high-speed railway and Huai ‘an-Zhenjiang railway, which are planned to be opened in the second half of this year, are progressing in an orderly manner and will be opened as scheduled. It is estimated that about 4,400 kilometers of new railway lines will be opened this year, including about 2,300 kilometers of high-speed railway.
A few days ago, Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transport, mentioned at a ministerial meeting that in the second half of the year, we should do our best to speed up the construction of a transportation power, prepare a good plan, solidly promote various batches of pilots, and promote major projects. At the same time, efforts should be made to expand effective investment in transportation fixed assets.
The industry pointed out that the huge investment scale and long industrial chain of major projects have obvious effects on expanding domestic demand, stimulating economic growth and promoting employment, and will also benefit people’s livelihood and lay a good foundation for China’s modernization.
Taking water conservancy construction as an example, "major water conservancy projects are important infrastructure to ensure national water security, and they are also important areas for national infrastructure to make up for shortcomings." Ye Jianchun, vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, said that these 150 major water conservancy projects can directly and indirectly drive investment of 6.6 trillion yuan, and at the same time increase employment by about 800,000 jobs annually.
"The role of investment in the bottoming economy in the second half of the year is more prominent, and infrastructure investment is an important force." Fan Ruoying, a researcher at the Institute of International Finance of Bank of China, told the Economic Information Daily that in the planning of major projects, efforts should be made to promote the construction of "two new and one heavy" related projects. It is necessary to make overall planning from the top-level design level. On the one hand, we should proactively lay out high-tech and emerging industries, increase the layout of new infrastructure projects such as 5G infrastructure, new energy vehicle charging piles, artificial intelligence and industrial internet, and encourage localities to carry out "new infrastructure" projects in light of their own economic characteristics to avoid repeated construction. On the other hand, we attach great importance to investment in short-board areas. Combined with the epidemic prevention and control, floods and other disasters, the shortcomings in related fields in China have been exposed. In the future, we should increase investment in public health facilities, major water conservancy projects, poverty alleviation, agriculture and rural areas, and ecological and environmental protection.
Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Department of the State Council Development Research Center, told the Economic Information Daily that at present, the most prominent problem that restricts the further recovery of China’s economy is insufficient demand. In the next step, we should work hard to boost infrastructure, and do a good job of making up shortcomings by combining long and short. In the second half of the year, we should focus on the overall long-term planning and accelerate the planning and construction of overall long-term large-scale projects.
The promotion of major projects is inseparable from financial support. In addition to accelerating the landing of financial and financial funds, the industry pointed out that deepening the reform of investment and financing system, especially attracting social capital, is also of great significance for promoting major project construction.
Su Wei said that the total investment scale of 150 major water conservancy projects is very large, and it is necessary to deepen the reform of investment and financing system and raise funds for project construction through multiple channels.
Fan Ruoxuan also suggested establishing and improving a long-term mechanism to attract private capital to invest in key areas, continuing to break down hidden obstacles for private capital to enter key areas, and boosting market participants’ confidence in long-term investment and operation. Flexible arrangement of financing mode, encourage commercial financial institutions to participate in the project through creditor’s rights, equity, asset support plan and other ways. Moderately relax the entry threshold for foreign investment in infrastructure, and introduce long-term foreign investment to participate in related projects under the premise of controlling risks. In addition, give greater play to the role of policy finance, and support major infrastructure projects through special construction funds and supplementary mortgage loans (PSL) to support specific areas of infrastructure. (Reporter Sun Yuhua, Ban Juanjuan, Wang Lu)