Investment is an important channel and effective means for stabilizing growth and promoting development. Focusing on expanding effective investment, multiple departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development have recently made arrangements for large-scale equipment renewal and ultra-long-term special treasury bond projects. Analysts believe that as new measures are accelerated and take effect, investment in related fields is expected to maintain relatively rapid growth, driving the continued expansion of effective investment.

Investment has maintained steady growth since the beginning of this year

How is the investment situation since the beginning of this year? Four sets of data convey positive signals. Looking at manufacturing investment, from January to April, manufacturing investment grew by 9.7% year on year, 5.5 percentage points higher than total investment, and its contribution to total investment growth was 54.8%, 2.5 percentage points higher than from January to March. Looking at infrastructure investment, from January to April, infrastructure investment grew by 6% year on year, 1.8 percentage points higher than total investment, driving total investment growth by 1.3 percentage points. Looking at high-tech industry investment, from January to April, high-tech industry investment grew by 11.1% year on year, 6.9 percentage points higher than total investment. Investment in high-tech services grew by 14.5% year on year, 1.8 percentage points faster than from January to March. Among these, investment in e-commerce services grew by 27.6%, investment in information services grew by 19.9%, and investment in science and technology and commercialization of results services grew by 16.5%. Looking at major project investment, from January to April, investment in projects with a planned total investment of 100 million yuan or more grew by 10% year on year, 5.8 percentage points higher than total investment, driving total investment growth by 5.3 percentage points. Among these, investment in projects with a planned total investment of 1 billion yuan or more grew by 10.1%, 5.9 percentage points higher than total investment. Liu Aihua, chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that overall, driven by policies related to actively expanding effective investment, national fixed asset investment has maintained steady growth.

Promoting large-scale equipment renewal

To further expand effective investment, new measures are being accelerated and implemented, and large-scale equipment renewal is one of them. In March this year, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-In of Consumer Goods, which clearly proposed implementing the equipment renewal action; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Sector, proposing that by 2027 the scale of equipment investment in the industrial sector increase by more than 25% compared with 2023; and on May 24, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and four other departments released the Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Culture and Tourism Sectors, proposing to strive by 2027 to guide and promote the renewal of a batch of facilities and equipment in the national culture and tourism sectors and maintain sustained and stable growth in the scale of related investment. Related policy measures for large-scale equipment renewal have been introduced successively. Localities are also accelerating the introduction of policy measures. On May 28, Anhui Province released an implementation plan for promoting large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods, proposing that by 2027 the scale of equipment investment in fields such as industry, agriculture, construction, transportation, education, culture and tourism, and healthcare increase by more than 25% compared with 2023. On May 14, Zhejiang Province released an implementation plan for advancing the scrapping and renewal of agricultural facilities and equipment and construction upgrading, proposing to strive by 2027 for the province's investment scale in agricultural facilities and equipment to increase by more than 30% compared with 2023. Liu Aihua analyzed that driven by the large-scale equipment renewal policy, from January to April, investment in the purchase of equipment and tools grew by 17.2% year on year, 13 percentage points faster than total investment, driving total investment growth by 2.2 percentage points.

Making good use of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds

Last year, China issued an additional 1 trillion yuan of treasury bonds specifically to support post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and enhance disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities. How is progress now? The Government Work Report proposed that starting this year, ultra-long-term special treasury bonds be issued for several consecutive years, specifically for the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity building in key areas. Li Chao said that the National Development and Reform Commission has made preparations for issuing the first batch of ultra-long-term special treasury bond projects, sorted out a batch of major projects that meet the requirements of major national strategy implementation and security capacity building in key areas and for which investment can be immediately allocated, and that construction can begin quickly once the treasury bond funds are in place. "In the next stage, we should make good use of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, accelerate the pace of issuing and using special bonds, and continue to vigorously advance the construction of major projects in the 14th Five-Year Plan," said Luo Yifei, chief statistician of the Investment Department of the National Bureau of Statistics. At the same time, we should implement the action plan for large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods to continuously unleash consumption and investment potential; actively cultivate and strengthen strategic emerging industries and use advanced technologies to empower the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries; implement the new mechanism for cooperation between government and social capital to fully stimulate the vitality of private investment; and promote the continued expansion of effective investment and high-quality investment development.