"Local version" of four-trillion-yuan investment differs from the past

　　On the 22nd of this month, the Information Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government and the Development and Reform Commission released the "List of Major Investment Projects in Sichuan Province (2013-2014)," planning to implement 4.26 trillion yuan of major project investment this year and next, exceeding the central government's 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus policy in 2008 and becoming the largest known local government investment plan in recent years. Following Sichuan, Fujian also launched a massive investment plan, with project investment data published on the provincial Development and Reform Commission website approaching 4 trillion yuan.

　　Since 2013, downward pressure on the domestic economy has not eased, while export growth has fallen below the preset target; at the same time, investment demand has also risen somewhat. As a result, investment-driven growth has once again been regarded by local governments as an important pulling factor. "With great downward pressure on the economy, we must maintain a certain development speed while promoting sustainable economic and social development; without industrial support, this cannot be guaranteed," a relevant official of the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission said of the province's situation.

　　Under the main tone of advancing economic structural transformation and changing the development model, local governments' trillion-level investment plans have aroused concern and vigilance among relevant parties. Industry experts believe that the industrial pains caused by the previous central "four-trillion" investment plan have not yet been digested, and localities should cautiously launch large-scale infrastructure plans while adhering to industrial structural adjustment.

　　Experts said that for investment, the focus should be on investment regions and investment structure; the necessity of investment should not be blindly denied altogether, nor should there be excessive worry that local governments' trillion-yuan investment plans will hinder economic transformation. "Judging from the places that have introduced investment plans, most are distributed in the central and western regions. This conforms to the arrangements of national economic transformation and regional development layout," analyzed Wei Yue, a senior industry researcher at Qianzhan.com. Local governments along the southeast coast do not have a very strong impulse to invest; even when there is investment, it follows the general direction of structural adjustment, namely the tertiary industry and strategic emerging industries.

　　"Investment led by the new government conforms to the direction of national economic transformation and development model change, and is investment that can absorb employment and develop people's livelihood," Wei Yue said. From the perspective of investment entities, whether it is the central government's reform of the investment approval system or local governments' trillion-yuan investment plans, diversifying investment entities is placed in the primary position, that is, changing the previous situation dominated by the government and state-owned enterprises and turning to focus on activating and guiding private investment.

　　Wei Yue predicted that effectively guiding private capital into construction in various fields will be the key to long-term stable economic development.

　　Local versions of huge investment "advance and retreat"

　　Recently, local governments have frequently introduced huge investment plans, with high investment enthusiasm, and their determination to use investment to drive the economy is evident. From the plans published by local governments, it can be seen that local government investment is becoming more pragmatic, and industries with severe overcapacity and poor corporate profitability are no longer included in the plans.

　　The reporter noted that in terms of investment content, infrastructure investment and strategic emerging industries have become the investment priorities encouraged by local governments, with investment mostly concentrated in fields such as infrastructure, industrial investment, livelihood projects, and ecological environmental protection.

　　In terms of infrastructure, Sichuan Province's 4.26-trillion-yuan investment plan gives the largest share to infrastructure construction, with a total of 710 infrastructure projects and an investment amount of 2,046.9 billion yuan. In Zhejiang Province's 10-trillion-yuan investment blueprint, infrastructure investment is a trillion-yuan segment. According to the "Zhejiang Province Action Plan for Expanding Effective Investment in Major Project Construction '411' (2013-2017)," the province will strive to build (reconstruct) 1,500 kilometers of railways, 140 kilometers of urban rail transit, and 1,000 kilometers of expressways in five years; add 240 million tons of coastal port throughput capacity; add 20 million person-times of civil airport passenger throughput capacity; and add 50,000 4G network base stations.

　　In terms of industrial investment, strategic emerging industries are widely favored in this round of local investment plans. The three-year revitalization plan for major industries in the industrial field released by the Chongqing Municipal Government states that during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the city's industry will invest a cumulative 1.5 trillion yuan to build 7 hundred-billion-level industrial clusters and 30 ten-billion-level industrial clusters. In addition, among the 1,200 investment promotion projects released by Jiangxi Province at the Central China Expo, the main ones are the province's major industrial investment projects and key investment projects in modern service industries this year, involving ten major fields such as modern logistics, information transmission and computer software, service outsourcing, and finance.

　　It is worth noting that some provinces and cities have also fully tapped their own potential and launched investment projects tailored to the characteristics of regional markets. For example, Guizhou launched a large number of tourism projects; Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, released the "Several Opinions of the Municipal Government on Further Expanding Domestic Demand and Stimulating Consumption," introducing a series of policies to expand domestic demand and stimulate consumption; and the Heilongjiang Provincial Government published the "Several Policy Measures on Promoting the Stable Growth of the Province's Industrial Economy," aimed at encouraging enterprises to increase production, helping enterprises open up markets, easing corporate funding pressure, and reducing corporate burdens.