China steps up major infrastructure projects
BEIJING: China will step up efforts in the construction of major projects and new infrastructure as part of its overall drive to foster long-term sustained, innovation-driven and high-quality development, the country’s top economic regulator says.
Experts said the government has already introduced a series of stimulus policies for infrastructure spending to shore up growth, and its accelerated push to construct key projects will help boost domestic demand, expand effective investment and stabilise the overall economy.
They said China’s economy will continue to pick up in the third and fourth quarters of the year with existing policy support and forceful infrastructure spending.
The country will support the construction of major projects, with a key focus on implementing 102 key projects mapped out during the period of the 14th Five-year Plan (2021-25) and projects in the five-year plan for transportation development, said Zheng Jian, director of the Department of Infrastructure Development at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
He said at a news conference in Beijing that the implementation of key projects will give a strong impetus to China’s economic and social development.
Song Wen, deputy director of the Planning Department at the National Energy Administration (NEA), said the NDRC and the NEA are accelerating the push for the implementation and construction of key projects mapped out in the 14th Five-year Plan to expand effective investment.
She said investment in key energy fields during the 14th Five-year Plan period is expected to grow by more than 20% compared with the 13th Five-year Plan (20162020), providing a strong driving force to expand effective demand and promote stable economic growth.
Zhang Zhihua, deputy director of the NDRC’S Department of Innovation and Hightech Development, said he is optimistic about the investment in new infrastructure construction in the future, and the NDRC will ramp up efforts to support projects in the area.
“We expect infrastructure investment will remain strong and do the heavy lifting to support growth,” said Lloyd Chan, a senior economist at the Oxford Economics think tank. Chan said stimulus rolled out in this year’s Government Work Report and the 33 measures announced in May will feed through in the second half.
New measures also include channelling 300 billion yuan (Rm193bil) to specific projects, along with allocating an additional quota of 500 billion yuan (Rm322bil) in local government special bonds that will be utilised by the end of October as new infrastructure projects become available for infrastructure financing.