"New infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure need to work together

Infrastructure investment is an important starting point for stable growth and energy rotation

Infrastructure is the cornerstone of national economic and social development. Infrastructure investment is one of the main driving forces to promote sustained economic growth, and it is also a "booster" and "ballast stone" to promote economic recovery and stabilize economic and social operation order after a major crisis. Looking back on China's development history, whether it was actively responding to natural disasters and the Asian financial crisis in 1998, or responding to the international financial crisis in 2008, increasing infrastructure investment was an important means to stimulate the economy and had a lasting impact. Since the beginning of this year, the COVID-19 epidemic has had a major impact on China's economic and social development. Under such circumstances, we should consider increasing investment in infrastructure as an important starting point to stabilize the economic order and smooth the domestic economic cycle.

Unlike the previous approach of promoting investment and stabilizing growth through traditional infrastructure, this round of infrastructure investment should emphasize both traditional infrastructure and "new infrastructure", and be driven by two engines. We must not only give full play to the important role of "new infrastructure" in maintaining growth, rotating capacity, adjusting structure, and cultivating advantages, but also consolidate and enhance the basic capacity of traditional infrastructure, comprehensively improve the overall quality and efficiency of infrastructure, stimulate the market, stabilize growth, and find a new way to effectively respond to shocks and achieve a virtuous cycle.

New infrastructure is an infrastructure system that is innovation-driven and based on information networks, optimizes the organization and allocation of resource elements, carries new economic and social supply and demand, and supports services such as digital transformation, intelligent upgrading, and integration and innovation, including information infrastructure, integration infrastructure, and innovation infrastructure. Traditional infrastructure mainly refers to railway, road, airport, port, pipeline, communication, power grid, water conservancy, municipal, logistics and other infrastructure. In fact, new infrastructure and traditional infrastructure is a relative concept, relative to the previous stage of scientific and technological or industrial development, the new infrastructure of "new seeds and new seedlings" or the traditional infrastructure of "old trees and new sprouts" should belong to the category of new infrastructure.

With the acceleration of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, the connotation and boundary of infrastructure will also be reformed and expanded. 5G, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data and other new generation of communication technologies will not only give birth to the industrial Internet, the Internet of things, data centers and other new infrastructure, but also greatly change the energy, transportation and people's way of production and life, reshape the spatial and temporal pattern of industrial division of labor, and promote the upgrading of traditional infrastructure. We will promote the rapid development of new infrastructure, such as green energy, smart roads, and smart railways, which "grow new buds from old trees."

"New infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure need to work together

Our emphasis on accelerating "new infrastructure" does not mean that we should weaken traditional infrastructure, but should base on the current needs of coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, focus on promoting high-quality economic development, and integrate "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure, so that "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure can work together.

On the one hand, to cope with the impact of the epidemic and promote economic recovery, "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure need to work together.

Realistically, in the process of coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, it is very important to strengthen investment in traditional infrastructure projects related to poverty alleviation, transportation and energy, major water conservancy, agriculture and rural areas, ecological environmental protection, municipal facilities, social livelihood, and the renovation of old urban communities. Affected by the epidemic, the number of traditional infrastructure projects that have been suspended is large, the investment scale is large, and the number of people involved is large. Promoting the resumption of traditional infrastructure projects as soon as possible will help stabilize economic and social order, stabilize employment and ensure people's livelihood. It should also be noted that in the context of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, continuous efforts to promote the investment and construction of major traditional infrastructure projects that have been clearly defined in the national plan will help strengthen weak links, strong and weak areas, promote growth, give full play to the key role of effective investment, and accelerate the accumulation of economic growth momentum.

At the same time, it is also urgent to accelerate the investment and construction of "new infrastructure" projects. At the same time, the impact of the epidemic has generated new consumption and demand, and led to the rapid development of emerging Internet business forms in industries such as Internet medical care, live education, online office, and public services supported by infrastructure such as fiber broadband, 4G/5G, data centers, and cloud computing. It is urgent to increase the supply of new infrastructure to meet the new demand in this regard in a timely manner. Achieve accurate matching between supply and demand. In this response to the epidemic, China has exposed obvious shortcomings in the major epidemic prevention and control system and public health emergency management system, and accelerating the "new infrastructure" will also help strengthen the construction of relevant capacities.

On the other hand, to meet the requirements of high-quality development, "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure need to work together.

China has entered a stage of high-quality development, and to promote high-quality economic development, we must balance the relationship between "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. At this stage, China's traditional infrastructure networks such as transportation, logistics, energy, water conservancy, and municipal services still have many shortcomings and deficiencies. There are still problems such as unbalanced development and inadequate supply of infrastructure between regions, between urban and rural areas, between cities, between different consumer groups, and between various links of "construction, management, maintenance and transportation". There is still much room for improvement in the overall quality, overall efficiency and service level of infrastructure, and construction, upgrading and upgrading need to be accelerated. The "new infrastructure" can greatly improve the quality and efficiency of traditional infrastructure, promote the vigorous development of intelligent transportation, smart grid, smart logistics, smart water conservancy, smart city, etc., and it is associated with intelligent manufacturing, Internet of things, Internet of vehicles, intelligent driving, unmanned distribution and other huge emerging industrial clusters. And 5G terminal consumption, network education, telemedicine, network entertainment and other emerging consumption with great potential. Therefore, accelerating the "new infrastructure" is conducive to transforming and upgrading traditional industries, cultivating and expanding emerging industries, and promoting economic transformation and upgrading and high-quality development.

Coordinate the development of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure of the realistic path

In accelerating the "new infrastructure" while upgrading traditional infrastructure, to achieve high-quality infrastructure development, it is necessary to coordinate the "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure, play a good policy "combination", coordinate the establishment of efficient coordination, guarantee strong policy support system, and promote the integrated development of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. We will accelerate the formation of an infrastructure supply system that can respond in a timely manner and accurately match the needs of different structures or scenarios, and has strong adaptability and rapid adjustment capabilities.

One is to plan the top-level design of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure in a timely manner. At present, China has prepared medium - and long-term network layout plans or industry development plans for traditional infrastructure construction fields such as transportation, logistics, energy, water conservancy, and communications, and has established mature planning evaluation and dynamic adjustment mechanisms. However, for "new infrastructure", its development trend, construction ideas and development priorities are still in the research and exploration stage, and lack of necessary strategic consideration. At present, efforts should be made to strengthen the top-level design of the "new infrastructure", and major special planning studies such as the spatial layout, target ideas, and development priorities of the "new infrastructure" should be launched as soon as possible. At the same time, do a good job of planning and guiding the "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure, with the goal of accelerating the high-quality development of infrastructure, and strengthen the overall connection between the "new infrastructure" and the top-level design of traditional infrastructure.

The second is to coordinate the timing and focus of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. Accelerating the progress of "new infrastructure" projects does not mean weakening traditional infrastructure, which will still play an important role in the national economic system for a long period of time. It is necessary to see that under the premise of financial resources, resources and environment constraints, the two must jointly share the annual investment scale and resource and environmental capacity. Therefore, whether at present or in the long run, it is very important to coordinate the construction timing, focus and resource allocation of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure projects. All localities should give full consideration to the requirements of the situation, prominent problems and strategic support needs of economic and social development in different periods, take into account the short board areas and construction priorities of the infrastructure system, stock upgrading and incremental innovation, as well as the allocation capacity of land, capital, manpower and other resource elements, and rationally arrange the timing of project construction.

Third, accelerate the establishment of an efficient and coordinated policy support system for infrastructure development. To promote "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure simultaneously, it is necessary to take multiple measures at the same time, overall planning and coordination, and accelerate the formation of an efficient, coordinated and powerful infrastructure construction policy support system. It is necessary to increase financial investment in "new infrastructure" projects in strategic emerging industries and upgrade traditional infrastructure projects; It is necessary to promote the fund operation system to adapt to the new situation and new needs in the field of infrastructure construction, coordinate the full life cycle of funds operation of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure, and improve the efficiency of fund use. It is necessary to strengthen the coordinated regulation function of policies, and increase policy support for land, environmental protection and energy consumption of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure upgrading projects; It is necessary to create a good business environment, simplify the approval process, strengthen personnel training, optimize the relevant technical norms and standards system, step up basic, strategic and cutting-edge technology research, and increase the development and application of new materials, new technologies and new processes.

Fourth, we will promote the integrated and innovative development of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. We need to adapt to the trend of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, focus on the development requirements of replacing old and new growth drivers, innovate the way we invest in factors of production, and accelerate the integrated development of "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. On the one hand, it is necessary to promote the sharing of resources, facility construction and space sharing between "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure, make full use of traditional infrastructure networks and economic factor resources, and coordinate the spatial layout and element connection between "new infrastructure" and traditional infrastructure. On the other hand, it is necessary to give full play to the driving role of the new generation of information technology, improve basic innovation capacity, strengthen the extensive application of advanced technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence in traditional infrastructure fields such as transportation, energy, water conservancy and municipal administration, accelerate the digital, intelligent and green upgrading of traditional infrastructure, and upgrade traditional infrastructure with "new infrastructure". Or connect new infrastructure on the basis of traditional infrastructure to achieve integrated and innovative development.