The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "expand investment with good returns and form a virtuous cycle in which consumption and investment reinforce each other" and to "give full play to the leveraging and amplifying effect of government investment."

Since the beginning of the year, all regions and departments have accelerated the advancement of major engineering projects and continued to expand effective investment. The construction of infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and water conservancy has advanced steadily, and a large number of major projects have been accelerated.

　　Transportation projects: solid progress in building smooth thoroughfares
On the coast of the South China Sea, sea and sky merge in one color. Over the vast waters of Huangmaohai, a cross-sea passage extends from land to sea, lying across the rippling ocean surface. Five main towers are rooted in the deep sea and rise high into the clouds; between the main towers, the erection of bridge steel box girders is progressing steadily.
"The Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage has fully entered the steel box girder erection stage," said Tong Zengyi, project manager of the Huangmaohai project of CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co., Ltd. He noted that after it is completed and opened to traffic by the end of this year as expected, it will join the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, and others to form the Greater Bay Area's cluster of cross-sea and cross-river passages.
On the shore of the Yellow Sea, waves roll. Beneath the blue waters of Jiaozhou Bay, the cutterhead of a shield machine slowly rotates, beginning a new year's journey under the sea. "This year is a year of intensive work for the project; in the first quarter we will strive to complete the trial excavation target of 86 meters," said Gan Congyu, project manager of Section 6 of the Jiaozhou Bay Second Subsea Tunnel Project of CCCC Tunnel Engineering Co., Ltd.
In Qinzhou City, Guangxi, construction is busy on the Pinglu Canal, a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor; as of February 18, about 166 million cubic meters of earth and rock excavation had been completed. In Changzhou City, Jiangsu, construction is busy on the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, the world's largest-span road-rail cable-stayed bridge, as workers strive to complete the closure of the side-span steel girders of the main navigation channel bridge by the end of April... Since the beginning of the year, a number of major transportation projects have progressed smoothly, and effective investment in transportation has continued to expand.
Transportation infrastructure construction is characterized by large investment scale, quick results, and strong driving effects. "Over the past five years, China has completed a cumulative fixed-asset investment in transportation of more than 18 trillion yuan, and the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has been accelerated and improved," said Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transport. He stated that this year efforts will be made to expand effective investment, accelerate the building of a modern transportation infrastructure system, and serve the economy in achieving effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth.
Aim at building a modern, high-quality national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network. In highways, efforts will focus on advancing the construction of strategic backbone corridors such as those from Xinjiang to Tibet, along the border and coast, and the New Western Land-Sea Corridor; continue to advance the construction of pending sections of national expressways and interprovincial bottleneck sections and the expansion and upgrading of busy corridors; and accelerate the connection of ordinary national highways and the quality upgrading of low-grade sections. In water transport, efforts will focus on advancing the construction of *** port clusters and world-class ports, accelerating major projects such as the container terminal in the Xiaoyangshan North Operating Area of the deep-water port area of Shanghai Yangshan Port, coordinating the preliminary work of the new Three Gorges water transport channel, and deepening the preliminary research and demonstration of the Xiang-Gui-Gan-Yue Canal.
Anchor at building a multi-level integrated comprehensive transportation hub. This year, the Ministry of Transport will further advance the supplementation and strengthening of the chains of national comprehensive freight hubs and strengthen the construction of comprehensive freight hubs and collection and distribution systems in the first two batches of cities for supplementing and strengthening chains.
Efforts to expand effective investment must not only highlight key areas but also create a favorable environment and provide factor guarantees for project construction.
On the one hand, improve the funding guarantee mechanism. This year, the Ministry of Transport will strengthen the effective connection between the medium-term fiscal plan and the five-year action plan for building a transportation powerhouse, and strengthen funding guarantees for key tasks and major projects. At the same time, it will carry out special pilot projects for building a transportation powerhouse in the investment and financing field, promote the use of the franchise model, and attract social capital to participate in project construction.
On the other hand, refine the preliminary work of projects. In conjunction with the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Transport will strengthen project reserves, improve the depth and quality of preliminary project work, proactively coordinate with departments such as development and reform, finance, natural resources, and ecological environment, accelerate approval progress, and strengthen factor guarantees.
"We will focus on expanding effective investment, form more physical工作量 as soon as possible, and better leverage the driving and amplifying role of transportation infrastructure investment," said Li Xiaopeng. (Reporter: Han Xin)

　　Energy projects: chasing wind and sun to aid transformation
With a total height of about 136 meters, nearly that of a 49-story residential building, and a total weight of more than 14,000 tons, equivalent to more than 9,000 cars—on February 28, in the waters of Hainan, the installation of the Phase II comprehensive processing platform of "Deep Sea No. 1" was completed, and this "steel behemoth" that receives and processes deep-water oil and gas stood firmly on the sea surface.
"We deployed the 'Blue Whale 7500,' the largest offshore oil and gas engineering crane vessel in China, with a maximum single-boom lifting capacity of 7,500 tons, to ensure high-quality completion of offshore lifting," said Guo Qing, general contracting project manager of the Phase II project of CNOOC's "Deep Sea No. 1." He noted that after the Phase II project is fully put into production, the reserves of the "Deep Sea No. 1" ultra-deepwater large gas field will increase from 100 billion cubic meters to 150 billion cubic meters, and peak annual output will increase by about 50%, making it an important gas source for safeguarding national energy security.
Seeking oil and gas, chasing wind and sun—since the beginning of this year, the construction of major energy projects has been vigorously advanced, providing solid support for securing the energy rice bowl and accelerating green transformation.

　　——Steadily enhance oil and gas supply capacity.
Breaking through 10,000 meters, China's first 10,000-meter scientific exploration well, PetroChina's Shendi Take-1 well, continues drilling; the Tarim Oilfield where it is located produces nearly 100 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, most of it extracted from deep formations 7,000 to 8,000 meters underground. Extending into the distance, construction has started on the 2,073-kilometer Hulin (Heilongjiang)-Changchun (Jilin) natural gas pipeline project; once completed, it will interconnect with the backbone natural gas pipeline network in Northeast China and add 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas supply per year.
A relevant official of the National Energy Administration said that this year efforts will be intensified in oil and gas exploration and development and infrastructure construction. Focusing on key areas such as deep earth and deep water, unconventional resources, and stable production of old oilfields, efforts will be made to strengthen guarantees for factors such as land and sea use, promote stable crude oil output at 200 million tons, and maintain a good momentum of natural gas production increase. At the same time, efforts will continue to accelerate the construction of key oil and gas pipeline network facilities and accelerate the implementation of the national plan for building gas storage capacity.

　——Optimize the layout of power transmission channels.
In Luding County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, construction of the Jinsha River upstream-Hubei ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project is in full swing, with power construction workers racing against time on mountain ridges to assemble tower materials. "The section we are in is located in a high-altitude heavy ice area; the slopes of the more than 100 newly built towers all exceed 35 degrees, with the steepest reaching 65 degrees, and some tower legs have a height difference of nearly 20 meters, as if erecting towers on a 'knife edge,'" said Zou Zhongxuan, project manager of State Grid Sichuan Power Transmission and Transformation Company.
This ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project, the world's highest in altitude, will after commissioning transmit nearly 40 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Central China each year, replacing more than 17 million tons of coal.
The Hami (Xinjiang)-Chongqing ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project is being accelerated, with new energy accounting for more than 50% of electricity; the Shaanbei-Anhui ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project has been approved, with a total investment of more than 80 billion yuan... Outbound transmission channels for large wind and photovoltaic bases are being laid out in an orderly manner, and the main grid framework is being continuously improved, laying a solid foundation for large-scale new energy consumption, safe grid operation, and stable power supply.

　——Continuously improve the level of new energy development and utilization.
At the edge of the Mu Us Sandy Land, a comprehensive energy base with multi-energy complementarity at the 10-million-kilowatt level has fully resumed construction; in the Lancang River basin, the clean energy base with complementary hydro, wind, and solar power plans to start construction on more than 3.27 million kilowatts of new energy projects for the whole year... On February 26, China Huaneng's nearly 34 million kilowatts of new energy projects started or resumed construction in a concentrated manner.
In Zhaoqing City, Guangdong, the construction site of the Zhaoqing Langjiang Pumped-Storage Power Station is "steaming." "A pumped-storage power station is like a large 'power bank': it charges when new energy output is high or electricity demand is low, and discharges when new energy output is low or electricity demand is high," said Su Sheng, deputy general manager of the Zhaoqing Pumped-Storage Project Department of China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Company. He told reporters that construction is currently 25% complete, and after completion the station is expected to generate 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
A relevant official of the National Energy Administration introduced that this year China will continue to promote the development of wind and solar power generation, promptly advance the construction of the second and third batches of large wind and photovoltaic bases, and strive to complete and put into production the second batch of bases on schedule. Efforts will be made to promote the construction of major hydropower projects and pumped-storage projects, compile plans for integrated hydro-wind-solar bases in major river basins across the country, and formulate a hydropower development and construction plan for the Yangtze River basin.
The vigorous advancement of major energy projects, while improving the capacity to guarantee energy and resource security and helping achieve the "dual carbon" goals, also plays an important role in stabilizing investment. This year, State Grid Corporation of China proposed that the scale of grid investment is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan. (Reporter: Ding Yiting)

　　Water conservancy projects: connecting river systems to ensure safety and tranquility
Cliffs stretch across, and tunnels are cut through; the No. 8 construction adit of the Baokang section of the Yangtze River-to-Han River Water Diversion Project is advancing toward the depths. Since the beginning of the year, the Baokang section has shifted to the main construction stage, and project construction has pressed the "fast-forward button."
"The No. 8 construction adit is the launch tunnel for the tunnel boring machine, and the surrounding rock mass is fractured—equivalent to having to carve out a tunnel 2,944 meters long and 240 meters deep from within a pile of rubble; the construction difficulty is imaginable," said Peng Chunlin, director of the No. 2 Construction Management Department of the Yangtze River-to-Han River Water Diversion Project. He introduced that the project adopted the plan of "short advance, weak blasting, strong support, quick closure, and frequent monitoring," and by the end of February 310 meters had been excavated.
Leaving the Three Gorges, crossing mountains, and connecting the Jianghan region, the Yangtze River-to-Han River Water Diversion Project is a ** major project in the follow-up works of the South-to-North Water Diversion. The project's water conveyance line is 194.7 kilometers long, with a static total investment of 55.158 billion yuan, and currently about 5,000 people are working on it. After the project is completed, it can increase the multi-year average water diversion scale of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion from 9.5 billion cubic meters to 11.51 billion cubic meters.
Water diversion projects cross mountains and ridges, reservoir dams rise from the ground, and irrigation canals run through fertile fields... Since the beginning of the year, water conservancy departments have done a good job in preliminary project work, implemented construction investment, and continuously advanced water conservancy project construction.

　——Open up water arteries and accelerate the building of the national water network.
At the source of the Qiantang River, construction is busy at the Kaihua Reservoir in Kaihua County, Zhejiang. "As a backbone project of the national water network, the Kaihua Reservoir has a total storage capacity of 184 million cubic meters and a water conveyance line of about 48 kilometers, which will further strengthen the water conservancy infrastructure system in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River basin," said Li Rui, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Water Resources.
With major rivers and large lakes as the veins, water conservancy projects are being networked and supplemented. This year, the Ministry of Water Resources will strive to start projects such as the Yinda-Jimin project in Sichuan, advance preliminary work on major inter-basin and inter-regional water diversion projects such as the Bailongjiang Water Diversion in Gansu and the Yellow River-to-Jining Diversion in Qinghai, and continuously improve the main framework and major arteries of the national water network.

　　——Strengthen water support and leverage its role in promoting investment, stabilizing employment, and expanding domestic demand.
At the construction site of the Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project around the Beibu Gulf, Lin Junping, in his early twenties, is busy working. "I work as a surveyor on the site; someone teaches me the techniques, the working environment is safe, and I feel very secure," he said.
The Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project around the Beibu Gulf has a total investment of 61.456 billion yuan and is, to date, Guangdong Province's inter-basin water diversion project with the largest diversion flow, the longest water conveyance line, the most complex construction conditions, and the highest total investment. "At present, all 17 sections of the entire line have started construction, with more than 8,500 people participating in construction, boosting regional economic development," said Du Canyang, Party secretary and executive director of Guangdong Yuehai Yuexi Water Supply Co., Ltd.
It is estimated that every 100 billion yuan invested in major water conservancy projects can drive GDP growth by 0.15 percentage points. The Ministry of Water Resources will make good use of the new mechanism for cooperation between government and social capital and build a diversified, multi-level, and multi-channel water conservancy investment and financing system.

　　——Consolidate water security and release benefits in water supply, flood control, and ecology.
Irrigation districts safeguard food security. At the construction site of the Meijiang Irrigation District in Ningdu County, Jiangxi, more than 60 large pieces of equipment are working side by side. It is expected that the 28-kilometer main canal will be fully connected in the first quarter, providing support for spring irrigation. After completion, the Meijiang Irrigation District will improve agricultural production irrigation conditions on 580,000 mu of land and ensure water use for 790,000 people. This year, the Ministry of Water Resources will accelerate the construction and renovation of modern irrigation districts, implement the renovation and upgrading of more than 1,000 large and medium-sized irrigation districts, and is expected to add, restore, and improve more than 50 million mu of irrigated area.
Dikes and dams add guarantees for flood control. On January 17, a major water conservancy project started this year—the Tongling Reach Comprehensive Management Project of the Yangtze River—began construction, which will play an important role in ensuring the stability of the river regime in the Tongling reach, enhancing flood control capacity along the banks, and protecting navigation conditions. On February 18, the Lep-ing Water Conservancy Hub Project, a controlling hub project in the Rao River basin, started construction, which will further improve the flood control and disaster reduction system in the lower reaches of the Le'an River. This year, the Ministry of Water Resources will scientifically lay out the construction of reservoirs, river channels, dikes, and flood storage and detention areas, and comprehensively enhance the basin's disaster prevention and reduction capacity.
Zhang Xiangwei, director of the Planning and Program Department of the Ministry of Water Resources, said that this year China will comprehensively advance the construction of the national water network and focus on enhancing the capacity to prevent floods and droughts, the capacity for economical and intensive use of water resources, the capacity to optimize the allocation of water resources, and the capacity for ecological protection and governance of rivers and lakes.