Today, the centralized commencement ceremony for the second batch of major projects in Hunan Province in 2024 was held at the Hisense Changsha Comprehensive Production Base project in Ningxiang. A total of 687 projects in the second batch of major engineering projects across the province broke ground in a centralized manner, with a total investment of 216.7 billion yuan and an annual planned investment of 91.1 billion yuan. This will further provide strong support for the economy to seek progress while maintaining stability and inject new momentum into the high-quality development of Hunan Province.

　　This second batch of 687 major engineering projects in Hunan Province that broke ground in a centralized manner involves a total investment of 216.7 billion yuan and an annual planned investment of 91.1 billion yuan. They are mainly concentrated in the fields of industrial development, infrastructure, people's livelihood and social undertakings, and ecological and environmental protection. Among them, there are 397 projects in the field of industrial development, with a total investment of 140 billion yuan, accounting for 64%, including advanced equipment manufacturing, advanced materials, advanced food, pharmaceutical and light textile and other advanced manufacturing projects. Among them, there are 91 advanced manufacturing projects, with a total investment of 27.1 billion yuan and an annual planned investment of 13.3 billion yuan.

　　There are 205 projects in the field of infrastructure, with a total investment of 63.6 billion yuan, including the "five networks" of transportation, water conservancy, energy, information and logistics, striving to improve the networking and modernization level of infrastructure and industrial carrying capacity; there are 58 projects in the field of people's livelihood and social undertakings, with a total investment of 9.2 billion yuan, including affordable housing and renovation of old residential communities, public health, vocational education and other projects that are of urgent concern and high priority to the people, attract high attention and benefit a wide range of people; there are 27 projects in the field of ecological and environmental protection, with a total investment of 3.9 billion yuan, including ecological river basin restoration, resource recycling, urban sewage treatment and energy conservation and emission reduction projects.

　　"The projects that broke ground in a centralized manner this time are large in investment volume, excellent in industrial quality and strong in driving capacity. Through the centralized commencement, the whole province has created an atmosphere of striving to be the first, demonstrated a vigorous momentum and reflected the determination to truly grasp and work hard, which will further highlight Hunan's investment vitality, convey development confidence and inspire the morale of cadres and the masses." Huang Donghong, Director and Party Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that in the next step, Hunan will seize historic opportunities, further intensify project preliminary work, construction and promotion, and while striving for speed, implement full-chain services, full-link follow-up and whole-process supervision, so as to lay a solid foundation for the stable progress and quality improvement of the economy throughout the year.

　　For the newly started projects this time, Hunan Province will establish a tracking and scheduling mechanism, strengthen project coordination and promotion, promote the projects to form physical workload as soon as possible and strive for early completion; it will optimize supporting services and comprehensively strengthen the guarantee of factors such as land, funds, labor and energy; it will ensure quality and safety, firmly hold the safety red line and quality bottom line of project construction, and strive to build high-quality projects, safe projects and clean projects.

　　In order to ensure the smooth progress of these newly started projects, Hunan Province, on the basis of the 133 additional treasury bond projects already under construction, has newly started 75 additional treasury bond projects, with a total investment of 15.9 billion yuan, effectively increasing the commencement rate of treasury bond projects across the province; at the same time, focusing on stimulating the vitality of private investment, focusing on strengthening and supplementing the industrial chain and expanding domestic demand to promote circulation, and driving investment across society, the number and investment amount of social investment projects this time accounted for more than 70%.

　　Today, Zijin Mining's annual production of 60,000 tons of lithium carbonate project, as one of the major projects of Hunan Province in 2024, broke ground in a centralized manner. At the site, Zou Laichang, President of Zijin Mining Group, introduced: "We recently plan to invest more than 10 billion yuan in Yongzhou to actively layout and develop industries such as lithium metal mines, environmental protection technology, engineering technology and new material research and development; the 60,000-ton lithium carbonate project that broke ground today is an important part of improving the industrial chain and industrial ecology. The total investment of the project is 5.856 billion yuan, of which the first phase investment is about 3.125 billion yuan. After completion and reaching full production, it can produce 30,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year, achieve annual operating revenue of nearly 4 billion yuan, create tax revenue of about 500 million yuan, and drive local employment of more than 1,500 people. It will strongly boost the rapid development of Hunan's green emerging industries and help the country's green energy transformation and carbon neutrality goals."

　　The centralized commencement ceremony was held simultaneously at the main venue in Ningxiang, Changsha and at branch venues in cities and prefectures within the province. The main venue, the Hisense Changsha Comprehensive Production Base project, is located in the Ningxiang Economic and Technological Development Zone of Changsha, with a planned total investment of 10 billion yuan, a planned land area of 1,022 mu, and completion and production by 2031. It is a strategic project laid out by Hisense Group in the central region. The project is constructed in two phases. The first phase builds a commercial air-conditioning intelligent manufacturing base, mainly producing water chillers, multi-connected units and other products; the second phase builds a comprehensive intelligent manufacturing base for refrigerators and washing machines, mainly producing smart refrigerators and washing machines, drum washing machines, dishwashers, range hoods and other products, with the goal of building a benchmark smart manufacturing factory in the global home appliance industry.