Investment in infrastructure was accelerated and the scale of investment continued to expand



The National Bureau of Statistics recently released data show that in the first five months of January, the national fixed asset investment grew by 6.2% year-on-year, the growth rate has narrowed compared with the January to April. Investment in infrastructure accelerated, investment in high-tech industries maintained its rapid growth this year, and investment in major projects played a stronger role in driving growth. Relevant experts believe that in the future, with the promotion of private investment and investment in new infrastructure construction, the driving role of investment in the steady growth of China's economy will be further evident.

Effective investment drove steady economic growth

As a fundamental driving force to boost domestic demand, stable investment is an important force to maintain economic growth.

Luo Yifei, chief statistician of the Investment Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, introduced that from January to May, all regions and departments strongly coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, played a key role in investment, and the investment scale continued to expand, and fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) increased by 6.2% year-on-year, the growth rate was 0.6 percentage points lower than that of January to April. The decline was 1.9 percentage points narrower than the January-April period.

Data show that in the first five months, the national infrastructure investment grew by 6.7% year-on-year, 0.2 percentage points faster than the previous four months, 0.5 percentage points higher than the total investment growth; Manufacturing investment grew by 10.6% year on year, 1.6 percentage points lower than in the previous April and 1.8 percentage points lower than in the previous April. Investment in high-tech industries increased by 20.5% year-on-year, and the growth rate has remained above 20% since the beginning of this year.

At the same time, investment in large projects has played a stronger role in driving growth. In the first five months, the completed investment of projects with a planned total investment of 100 million yuan or more increased by 10.2% year-on-year, 4 percentage points higher than the total investment; The contribution rate to the total investment growth was 83.3%, 2 percentage points higher than the previous four months; Driving the total investment growth of 5.2 percentage points.

"At present, China's economy is facing downward pressure, and investment has become an important carriage driving China's economic growth." Yu Miaojie, deputy director of the National Development Institute of Peking University, analyzed to our reporter, "From the perspective of investment form, infrastructure investment has a more significant role in driving economic growth." At the same time, the rapid growth of investment in manufacturing and high-tech industries is conducive to promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and promoting the steady and healthy development of the Chinese economy."

We will promote high-quality development of private investment

Private investment is of great significance in maintaining the steady growth of overall investment. In the first five months of this year, private investment grew by 4.1 percent, accounting for 56.9 percent of total investment. Among them, private investment in manufacturing increased by 18.9% and private investment in infrastructure increased by 9.1%, and the quality of private investment further improved.

Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of private investment has been slower than that of overall investment, owing to the complex and volatile international situation and the spread of COVID-19 in China. An executive meeting of The State Council held on June 15 deployed measures to support private investment and promote multi-benefit projects with one stone. Meng Wei, spokesman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the implementation of various policies and measures to encourage the development of private investment and improve the policy environment for private investment will help better stabilize market expectations and investment confidence, and promote high-quality development of private investment.

On the one hand, we need to leverage the role of major projects and government investment. "According to the 102 major projects in the 14th Five-Year Plan, major national strategies and other clear key construction tasks, we will select projects with a certain level of income and relatively mature conditions, and adopt various ways to attract private capital participation." Meng Wei said that when arranging all kinds of government investment funds, private enterprises will be treated equally, and the government will play a guiding role in investment.

On the other hand, we will accelerate the implementation of private investment projects. Private investment projects that have a strong driving role in promoting economic and social development, promoting industrial transformation, and accelerating technological progress should be actively included in the key investment project databases of various localities, and the factors of land (sea use), energy use, water use, and capital should be strengthened.

Meng Wei introduced that the National Development and Reform Commission will further promote the accelerated development of private investment by encouraging private investment to actively participate in revitalizing stock assets, strengthening financing support for private investment, supporting the standardized development of private enterprises, and continuously optimizing the environment for private investment.

We will promote investment in new infrastructure

In the first four months of this year, more than 190,000 5G base stations were built nationwide, 1.653 million gigabit network ports were added, reaching a total of 9.54 million, and the number of racks of national hub node data centers exceeded 540,000 standard racks. At present, investment in new infrastructure construction has maintained steady growth, development is full of resilience, and its role in supporting epidemic prevention and control, resuming work and production, and maintaining the stability of industrial and supply chains has become more prominent.

Meng Wei introduced that in terms of investment in new infrastructure construction, from the current grasp of the reserve project situation, the second half of the local and backbone enterprises will increase investment, a number of major projects will start construction, especially the social capital investment potential is large. The National Development and Reform Commission will continue to promote the construction of key projects together with local and relevant departments. We will accelerate the project to improve the basic networks of small and medium-sized cities in the central and western regions, and focus our support on a group of small and medium-sized cities in the central and western regions with prominent industrial characteristics and a good foundation for development. At the same time, we will accelerate the deep integration of 5G, artificial intelligence, and big data with the real economy, build a number of important integration infrastructure and computing infrastructure, and actively explore new technologies, new industries, new forms of business, and new models. Strengthen the layout of national integrated big data centers, increase support for planning, network, and energy use, support the construction of the "East number and West count" project, and promote the construction of each hub node to take effect as soon as possible.

In terms of investment and financing, The State Council recently issued a package of measures to stabilize the economy, accelerate the use of local government special bonds and expand the scope of support, including new infrastructure for the first time. Meng Wei introduced that the National Development and Reform Commission will actively promote banking financial institutions, real estate investment trust funds (REITs) in the field of infrastructure to invest in major new infrastructure construction projects, give play to the role of venture capital guidance funds in emerging industries, facilitate financing for small and medium-sized enterprises in related fields, and further stimulate the enthusiasm of social capital investment.