On the frozen ice and frozen earth, the Yongxing Hulan River Grand Bridge in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province recently began continuous beam construction. As a result, the entire Harbin-Yichun high-speed railway construction project has fully resumed work.

The 16,709-meter-long Yongxing Hulan River Grand Bridge is a key project of the Harbin-Yichun high-speed railway. At the construction site, it was learned that in the main channel of the Hulan River, several bridge piers stand tall, surrounding huge tower cranes continuously hoist materials, and workers are full of energy, racing against time to meet the construction schedule.

Li Feng, chief engineer of the Harbin Railway Project Management Department of China Railway Shanghai Engineering Bureau, said that the construction team has adopted special measures for the severe cold characteristics of the northern region and has also used construction techniques such as large-diameter bored piles to ensure bridge construction quality.

The spring cold is still sharp, yet the atmosphere is bustling with heat—this is Northeast China today, where the enthusiasm of the ice and snow economy continues.

Major projects are an important window for observing local economies. In 2024, Heilongjiang Province will implement 1,000 provincial-level key industrial projects, Liaoning Province's annual planned investment in provincial-level key projects exceeds 170 billion yuan, and Jilin Province plans to implement more than 2,500 major projects. The construction of major projects adds vigorous momentum to the development of the old industrial base.

The three Northeast provinces are accelerating the building of a high-quality and efficient industrial structure in project construction, cultivating new quality productive forces, and while promoting the "stability" of the real economy, accumulating the staying power for "progress."

A batch of key projects that benefit the present, plan for the long term, and have new momentum are being laid out at an accelerated pace. In early February, the Northeast **new energy vehicle power battery production base—the first phase of the FAW FinDreams new energy power battery project—was put into production. Wang Zepeng, executive deputy general manager of FAW FinDreams New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said that this project plays an important role in helping Jilin Province's new energy vehicle industry master key core technologies, and batch delivery of power batteries is expected by the end of the first quarter.

At Northeast Light Alloy Co., Ltd. in Harbin, a special aluminum alloy forging production line project with a total investment of 450 million yuan is under accelerated construction. For many years, the company has focused on optimizing and upgrading its industrial structure, and its high-end aluminum alloy products are widely used in the aerospace field.

Among Heilongjiang Province's provincial-level key industrial projects this year, projects for new engines of economic development and strategic emerging industries will account for more than 50%. Duan Yuelan, deputy director of the Major Projects Office of the Heilongjiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that Heilongjiang Province is accelerating project construction to achieve "first-quarter" starts, resumption of work, and full operation, giving full play to the role of key projects as a "ballast stone" driving economic growth.

Projects get underway, everyone gets busy, and the economy heats up. A reporter's visits found that behind the continued warming of major project construction in Northeast China, there is an inseparable link to the increasingly improved business environment in various places.

Sparks fly and machines roar. In Huludao City, Liaoning Province, the large-scale fine chemicals project of Sinochem Yangnong in Huludao, with a total investment of about 10 billion yuan, is progressing smoothly and is expected to be put into production within the year. According to the project leader, the local government innovatively adopted a model of starting construction immediately upon land acquisition, fully optimized the approval process, and the construction permit was approved within one week, greatly shortening the processing cycle of various approvals.

In recent years, various places in Northeast China have continued to deepen the reform of "streamlining administration, delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services," regarding optimizing the business environment as the "key lever" for transforming government functions and stimulating market vitality, and have adopted a series of targeted measures to shore up weak links, using a better "business environment" to win over "business investment."

Data show that in 2023, the utilization of domestic capital by projects of 10 million yuan and above in Heilongjiang Province increased by 21.1% year on year; the actual funds received from investment promotion in Liaoning Province and Jilin Province increased by 16% and 34.8% year on year, respectively.

Enterprises feel changes in the development environment most directly. The first phase of the Songyuan Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park (green hydrogen-ammonia-methanol integration) project, with an investment of 10.5 billion yuan, started construction last year. Li Jingguang, chairman of China Energy Engineering Hydrogen Energy Co., Ltd., said that Jilin Province's reform measures for the business environment have strengthened market confidence, and the company decided to adjust its plan, merge phases two and three of the project, and move construction forward to this year.