Recently, major projects in many regions have started en masse in the fourth quarter. At the same time, funds have been accelerated for disbursement and use to support the construction of key field projects. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters, the investment in projects with a planned total investment of 100 million yuan or more increased by 7.1% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerating by 0.1 percentage points compared to January-August, and 3.7 percentage points higher than the total investment; it drove the total investment growth by 3.9 percentage points, an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to January-August.
Industry experts believe that major projects are the ballast stone for stabilizing economic growth and a strong engine for promoting high-quality development. The start of major projects sends a signal of accelerated investment, which is conducive to boosting confidence and expectations, and better plays the role of effective investment.
A large number of projects with large amounts
At present, major projects across the country are accelerating, continuously injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of the economy.
The fourth batch of major project start-up mobilization meeting in Anhui Province was held in Hefei not long ago, with 551 projects mobilized for start-up, a total investment of 426.81 billion yuan, and an annual plan investment of 42.61 billion yuan. Among them, there are 22 projects with a total investment of more than 3 billion yuan, and 15 projects with a total investment of more than 5 billion yuan.
The reporter saw at the construction site of the Aokun Aluminum Alloy Wheel Intelligent Manufacturing Project in Tongling Economic Development Zone that the construction unit is taking advantage of the fine weather to speed up construction. In order to promote the smooth landing and effectiveness of the project, and to form effective physical work volume, Tongling is closely following the goal and task of the "Major Project Breakthrough Year", tightening the responsibility of "managing the industry must manage investment", improving the quality and efficiency of the "Saturday Consultation", trying every means to seize time and catch up with the progress, and running out the "acceleration" of project construction.
Sheng Xuesong, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission in Tongling City, told the reporter that Tongling has explored the establishment of a major project coordination and promotion library around major projects such as those that have not started construction, provincial key projects, and provincial start-up mobilization. It has strengthened the supervision of project implementation, reinforced financial guarantees and construction organization, and strived to keep the start-up rate and inclusion rate of provincial start-up mobilization projects at the forefront of the province.
The on-site promotion activity of major projects in the fourth quarter of 2024 in Sichuan was also held not long ago, promoting a total of 1823 projects with a total investment of 785.5 billion yuan. In terms of investment scale, there are 159 projects with an investment of more than 1 billion yuan, with a total investment of 504.6 billion yuan; 16 projects with an investment of more than 5 billion yuan, with a total investment of 253.9 billion yuan; 11 projects with an investment of more than 10 billion yuan, with a total investment of 221.2 billion yuan. One major project after another has been successively landed, sounding the "final" horn for Sichuan to unswervingly achieve the annual economic and social development goals and tasks.
To enhance the economic competitiveness of cities, the support of specific projects is needed. At the beginning of this year, the Shandong Provincial Government announced the list of major implementation projects for 2024, and the Kongtong Shengjing project was among them. The project started construction in September 2022, aiming to create China's first fairyland culture-themed tourism and vacation island and a new highland for Shandong's culture and tourism. Recently, the main structure construction of the wharf project of Shandong Yantai Kongtong Shengjing was successfully completed.
Li Dong, deputy director of the Investment Office of the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, introduced that from January to September, Shandong completed and put into production 2751 projects. Among them, 2073 industrial projects have been put into production, forming an output value of 348.14 billion yuan. Among the 15,000 provincial, city, and county key projects, 12,550 implementation projects have completed an investment of 232.91 billion yuan, accounting for 85.1% of the annual plan, and 12,329 projects have started construction, with a start rate of 98.2%. Among them, after excluding the preparation projects from the 2,000 provincial key projects, 1936 implementation projects have completed an investment of 91.136 billion yuan for the year, accounting for 86.2% of the annual plan, and 1,923 projects have started construction, with a start rate of 99.3%.Expanding Investment Space
This year, Sichuan's economy has continued to face pressure, but its characteristics of strong resilience, great potential, and sufficient vitality have not changed. With the central government's further comprehensive deepening of reforms and support for the construction of "two new" and "two heavy" policies and measures, which have been intensively implemented and shown effects, a critical window period has been provided for making up for lost time and losses. From January to August, 300 major projects for the joint construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing region's economic circle completed an investment of 322.91 billion yuan, with an annual investment completion rate of 73.9%, exceeding the schedule by 7.2 percentage points. During the same period, Chengdu's fixed asset investment increased by 7.6% year-on-year, and 944 city-level and above key projects completed 76.5% of the annual investment plan, exceeding the schedule by 9.8 percentage points. Meishan completed an investment of 78.92 billion yuan from January to August, with a growth of 7.8%.
"In terms of optimizing investment direction and improving the comprehensive efficiency of fund utilization, Sichuan focuses on the national development direction and major strategies, and takes on the mission of 'shouldering the heavy burden' of the economic powerhouse around the 'two heavy' construction," said Wang Xiaoqi, director of the Investment and Sustainable Development Research Center at the Sichuan (Western) Research Institute. In response to "strengthening the long board," Sichuan enhances its own advantages, highlights independent innovation, and strengthens and extends the chain in areas such as the comprehensive development and utilization of strategic resources, major equipment development, and artificial intelligence, to achieve sustainable development. To "make up for the short board," Sichuan accelerates breakthroughs in "bottleneck" problems, such as the transformation of urban underground pipelines, major ecological projects, and assistance in ethnic areas and revolutionary old districts.
In September, Sichuan held a provincial economic operation work promotion meeting, which proposed to focus on project investment to add strength and momentum, concentrate on planning projects and implementing projects, make good use of the "golden September and silver October" construction golden period, and further tap potential and form additional volume.
This year, Anhui has focused on expanding effective investment, grasping projects, large projects, and high-quality projects, and making every effort to sprint towards the annual target tasks. In Huaibei, there are 33 projects included in the first batch of provincial key project lists, with a fixed asset investment of 47.55 billion yuan and an annual plan investment of 9.8 billion yuan; from January to August this year, the provincial key projects within Huaibei City have a start rate of 100% and an investment completion rate of 74.3%.
Wang Peigang, a member of the Party Group and deputy director of the Huaibei Municipal Development and Reform Commission, introduced that in the first three quarters, Huaibei's tasks of investment promotion, project start, acceptance, and completion were completed by 60%, 87.5%, 93.3%, and 84.6% respectively, and 159 new projects planned to start in 2025 were added, forming a project promotion pattern of "completing a batch, starting a batch, reserving a batch, and planning a batch."
Zhang Han, deputy director of the Investment Office of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that Anhui has issued and implemented the "Anhui Province Effective Investment Special Action Plan (2024)," focusing on investment special actions in 12 fields such as science and technology, manufacturing, transportation, water conservancy, and urban functional quality and vitality enhancement.
Increase policy protection
The new generation of information technology industry is one of the "top ten" industries that Shandong Province focuses on cultivating. The "Shandong Province '14th Five-Year Plan' Strategic Emerging Industry Development Plan" clearly proposes to accelerate the growth and upgrading of core industries such as integrated circuits.
On October 16, Shandong's silicon material project for etching equipment was put into production, which is the first integrated circuit etching equipment silicon material production project in Shandong Province and one of the core forces in the construction of the integrated circuit key material base in Dezhou, Shandong. It is reported that after the completion of the integrated circuit key material base project, it will change the situation where China's 12-inch integrated circuit key materials are completely dependent on imports.Wang Dashan, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of Dezhou Tianqu New District, stated that supporting policies will be introduced, a service center for industrial development will be established, and a special team will be formed to promote the construction of key projects, in order to integrate Dezhou into the global industrial chain of integrated circuits. Policy support and financial security are also important reasons for the accelerated advancement of major projects.
Anhui has seized policy opportunities by establishing a centralized joint review mechanism for project applications, increasing the approval rate, actively striving for various central policy funds, and increasing the frequency of project scheduling to promote the accelerated construction and use of funds. Zhang Han indicated that this year, Anhui has secured an additional issuance of government bond funds amounting to 39.23 billion yuan, supporting the construction of 444 projects, all of which have commenced construction before the end of June. The special bond limit for 2024 is 169.4 billion yuan, which has been fully issued. Anhui has also secured 35.43 billion yuan from the central budget, setting a new historical record.
Previously, Sichuan had held a special meeting to study the work related to the support of "two heavy" construction by long-term special government bonds. The "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening Factor Guarantee and Fully Promoting the Acceleration of Major Project Construction," issued in September, proposed to seize the significant opportunity of long-term special government bonds to support "two heavy" construction, to plan and reserve projects, and to prioritize the support for eligible provincial major projects to compete for central budget funds, special bonds, and long-term special government bonds.
Regarding how to ensure financial security for major projects, Wang Xiaoqi suggested that local governments should conduct research and selection of major projects, ensuring a cycle of reserving, demonstrating, constructing, and completing batches of projects. In addition, the guiding and exemplary effects of long-term special government bonds should be leveraged to further optimize the business environment, attracting and driving financial capital, social capital, and foreign capital to participate in the construction of major projects.