Winter has arrived, but construction sites across Zhejiang are bustling with activity as major projects throughout the province proceed at full speed. In the first 11 months of this year, Zhejiang's fixed asset investment grew by 5.8% year on year, 2.9 percentage points higher than the national rate, continuing to lead the eastern provinces; investment in major projects under the provincial "Thousand Projects, Trillion Yuan" initiative to expand effective investment exceeded one trillion yuan. The province's overall investment situation is generally stable, providing strong support for Zhejiang's economic recovery and improvement.

Expanding effective investment is a key measure for responding to uncertainties in the external environment. To this end, over the past year, Zhejiang has worked with greater intensity to stabilize investment and optimize its structure, laying a solid foundation for high-quality economic development.

In terms of the policy environment, Zhejiang has made stabilizing investment a focal point. As early as the beginning of the year, it took the lead in introducing the "8+4" economic policy system, placing the expansion of effective investment in the foremost position; the provincial Two Sessions proposed implementing the "Thousand Projects, Trillion Yuan" initiative to expand effective investment, ranking first among the "Ten Major Projects." Meanwhile, since the beginning of this year, Zhejiang has successively issued policy documents including the 24 Measures for Expanding Effective Investment, the Guidelines for Decision-Making and Evaluation of Major Provincial Industrial Projects, the Measures for the Management of Major Provincial Construction Projects, and the 32 Measures for the Private Economy, continuously activating investment across society.

For example, under the "Thousand Projects, Trillion Yuan" initiative aimed at expanding effective investment, Zhejiang arranged a total of 1,244 major projects in 2023, with total investment of 8.236 trillion yuan and an annual planned investment of 1.0007 trillion yuan, achieving full coverage across 90 counties (cities and districts). As of the end of November, major projects under the provincial "Thousand Projects, Trillion Yuan" initiative had completed investment of 1.21521 trillion yuan, an investment completion rate of 121.4%; all newly started projects had begun construction, achieving the goal of a 100% start rate for new projects for the year ahead of schedule, making it the anchor for stabilizing investment.

There is also the closely watched private investment. In the first half of this year, affected by the external environment, Zhejiang's private investment growth rate continued to decline from 2.6% at the beginning of the year to 0% from January to July. In August, the province quickly issued the "32 Measures for the Private Economy," after which private investment gradually stabilized and rebounded. From January to October this year, private investment in the province grew by 0.2% year on year, of which private project investment grew by 10.0% year on year, both higher than the national level over the same period.

In terms of investment practice, centralized groundbreaking events for major projects, as a regular feature of Zhejiang's investment stabilization efforts, continue to be advanced. This year, Zhejiang held two provincewide centralized groundbreaking events for major projects on February 21 and July 4, involving 367 major projects with total investment of 1.3597 trillion yuan and an annual planned investment of 178.9 billion yuan. As of the end of November, the two batches of projects had completed a cumulative investment of 188.2 billion yuan.

In terms of institutional mechanisms, new space has been created for government-led investment and social follow-on investment. At the beginning of the year, Zhejiang planned to establish four special industry cluster funds—for next-generation information technology, high-end equipment, modern consumer and health, and green petrochemicals and new materials—and one "specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative" fund of funds to promote industrial investment. Subsequently, a Zhejiang provincial advanced manufacturing fund cluster with a scale of more than 200 billion yuan was officially launched. At present, the fast-moving industrial funds have already begun investing in industrial projects.

In terms of factor guarantees, Zhejiang provides full support for the factor needs of major projects. In terms of funding, Zhejiang secured more than 10 billion yuan in central budget investment this year, involving total project investment of more than 100 billion yuan; the quota of special bonds allocated accounted for more than 7% of the national total, vigorously seizing the policy benefits of additional government bonds. In terms of land guarantees, the province supplied nearly 400,000 mu of state-owned construction land, with the provincial level arranging 50,000 mu of new construction land plan indicators to guarantee major infrastructure projects at or above the provincial level, and 20,000 mu of construction land indicators to guarantee major provincial industrial projects. In terms of energy guarantees, this year 36.93 million tons of standard coal in new energy consumption indicators have been guaranteed for major industrial projects, freeing up 2.86 million tons of standard coal in existing energy consumption space.

Economic recovery often does not happen overnight; today's effective investment is an important weight for stabilizing and improving the economy in the future. Next, Zhejiang will mobilize all localities and departments to improve the quality of project planning and reserves, and consolidate the basic foundation for the province's expansion of effective investment next year. At the same time, it will persistently promote the publicity and implementation of the "32 Measures for the Private Economy," further driving private investment to gain momentum and release vitality.