At the start of the Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon, many places across the country actively arranged to expand effective investment, and successively released their lists of major projects for 2024. Policy support has been strengthened and made more effective, and a batch of projects with large scale, sound structure and enhanced vitality have started construction in a concentrated manner, striving for a good start to the year's economy.

On February 18, the Qingdao Shanghe Hub Port New City Infrastructure and Supporting Project (Phase I), with a total investment of 3.03 billion yuan, broke ground. The site was bustling with roaring machinery and busy activity.

"Through the construction of six roads and supporting works in the park, the project will further improve the park's comprehensive service functions, build coordinated development of the transport economic circle, and help the Shanghe International Hub Port become an important window for international exchange and external display in the Shanghe Demonstration Zone," said Ma Fang, deputy general manager of China Railway Construction.

Data show that as of February 19, China Railway Construction had 436 projects under construction; overseas projects continued work without stopping during the Spring Festival; more than 60 percent of domestic projects had resumed work and production; and more than 13,000 laborers had returned to sites.

Just after the Spring Festival holiday, localities rolled up their sleeves and set off a wave of project starts: in Jiangxi, 1,139 major projects for the first quarter started construction in a concentrated manner, with a total investment of 680.5 billion yuan; in Zhejiang, 333 major "thousand projects, trillion yuan" projects started construction, were completed and put into operation in a concentrated manner, with a total investment of 977 billion yuan; in Guangdong, Foshan and other places successively launched concentrated project starts for the New Year...

Major projects are the ballast of economic development and an important lever for expanding investment with returns.

When deploying this year's economic work, the 2023 Central Economic Work Conference pointed out the need to "expand investment with returns." "Expanding investment with returns is not only an important way to expand domestic demand, but also an inherent requirement for promoting high-quality economic development and the transformation of economic growth drivers. On the one hand, we should further give play to the guiding and driving role of government investment, do a good job in major infrastructure construction, and strengthen investment in scientific and technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and people's livelihood. On the other hand, we should pay more attention to stimulating the vitality of private investment and enhancing the confidence of private capital," said Fan Ruoying, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute.

A closer look at the policies for expanding effective investment and the lists of major projects for 2024 recently released by many places shows that large scale, sound structure and enhanced vitality are key words.

Many projects and large investment amounts: Guangdong Province has arranged 1,508 provincial key construction projects with an annual planned investment of 1 trillion yuan; Chongqing's list of key projects initially includes about 1,200 projects, with a planned total investment of about 2.9 trillion yuan and an annual planned investment of more than 450 billion yuan; Jiangsu Province is implementing 600 major industrial projects, 100 more than the previous year, with a planned total investment of 1.5498 trillion yuan and an annual planned investment of 369.68 billion yuan, up 17.8 percent and 15.0 percent respectively from the previous year.

Industry is moving more toward the "new," and people's livelihood is growing "warmer": Shanghai's major project plan arranges 191 formal projects, of which science and technology industry projects are the most numerous, reaching 76; among Jiangsu's 600 provincial major industrial projects, strategic emerging industry projects account for 69.5 percent, and future industry projects such as third-generation semiconductors, hydrogen energy, new energy storage, cutting-edge new materials, and future network communications account for 12.8 percent; Hunan Province's ten major livelihood projects include 24 projects in total, with an estimated total investment of 53.6 billion yuan, 2.1 billion yuan more than in 2023.

Support has been strengthened and made more effective to stimulate private investment: focusing on continuously expanding investment with returns, Anhui Province's Several Policy Measures on Consolidating and Enhancing the Momentum of Economic Recovery and Improvement propose support measures such as strengthening factor allocation guarantees and stimulating the vitality of private investment, and explicitly establish a special guiding fund for promoting private investment to support places where private investment grows fast, is highly dynamic, and where measures are solid; the 2024 Zhejiang Province Policy on Expanding Effective Investment proposes formulating and implementing detailed rules for Zhejiang Province's new mechanism for government and social capital cooperation, ensuring that in 2024 the province's private investment growth rate and the proportion of private investment in fixed asset investment increase compared with 2023. Among the 333 major "thousand projects, trillion yuan" projects started in a concentrated manner in Zhejiang this time, industrial projects with private enterprises as the main investors account for nearly half, a new high.

Industry insiders pointed out that the "early action and early grasp" layout and concentrated start of construction of major project works have sent a signal of accelerating investment expansion, which is conducive to boosting confidence and expectations and better giving play to the key role of effective investment.

Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Orient Golden Credit, said that in 2024 the policy stance emphasizes continuing to "strengthen macro-control," and the growth rate of fixed asset investment may accelerate slightly from the previous year, showing an overall feature of "progress while maintaining stability." Among them, infrastructure investment is expected to continue to maintain a relatively fast growth level, and the growth rate of manufacturing investment will also tend to accelerate.

"Since the beginning of this year, the proactive fiscal policy has further gained strength. As all 1 trillion yuan of additional government bonds for 2023 have been allocated, the issuance of new special bonds by various localities has also started one after another and continued, and it is expected that government investment will remain relatively strong this year and play a driving and amplifying role to promote sustained and relatively rapid investment growth," Fan Ruoying predicted, adding that the pace of subsequent special bond issuance will accelerate, showing a pattern of slow first and fast later, and the scale of new special bonds this year will likely be higher than the previous year.