Recently, local "first-quarter reports" on investment have been released in quick succession. In the first quarter, the construction of key projects in many places advanced at full speed, with investment in projects in energy, transportation and other fields generally exceeding expectations. To further boost "stable investment" and consolidate the "ballast stone," many places have recently held mobilization meetings for major projects, planned new goals for expanding effective investment, accelerated the reserve of a batch of major projects, and focused on shoring up weak areas in people's livelihoods.

During the May Day holiday, Xiong'an New Area was bustling with activity. At the construction site of the comprehensive supporting project for the Xiong'an Station body of the Beijing-Xiong'an Intercity Railway, workers were installing curtain wall stone and glass.

At present, Xiong'an New Area has entered a stage of simultaneously undertaking Beijing's non-capital functions and advancing construction. This year, the new area has started more than 100 key projects and has more than 100 projects under construction, with planned investment of 200 billion yuan.

Statistics bureau data show that in the first quarter, national fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) reached 9.5994 trillion yuan, up 25.6 percent year on year, with an average two-year growth of 2.9 percent. Among this, infrastructure investment rose 29.7 percent year on year, with an average two-year growth of 2.3 percent.

Energy, transportation and other fields are undoubtedly the highlights. According to the spokesperson of the National Energy Administration, the construction of major projects was accelerated in the first quarter: Unit 5 of the Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant (the world's first Hualong One reactor) was put into operation; the first phase of the Zhejiang Sanao Nuclear Power Project, the second phase of the Hainan Changjiang Nuclear Power Project, and the Mengdigou Hydropower Station on the Yalong River in Sichuan started construction; and the Baihetan-Jiangsu ±800 kV direct current transmission project was approved.

Sun Wenjian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport, said that in the first quarter, 579.2 billion yuan was invested in transportation fixed assets, up 52.8 percent from the same period in 2020 and up 18.5 percent from the same period in 2019. Among this, 459.7 billion yuan was invested in highways and waterways, up 60.1 percent from the same period in 2020 and up 23.5 percent from the same period in 2019, completing 25.5 percent of the full-year investment target of 1.8 trillion yuan, the best progress in the past five years.

In addition, according to local investment "report cards" disclosed intensively recently, first-quarter investment in many places got off to a better-than-expected start, and key project construction advanced at full speed. In Ningxia, as of the end of March, 79 of the region's 90 key construction projects had started or resumed construction, a start rate of 87.8 percent, with completed investment of 5.42 billion yuan and an investment completion rate of 10.2 percent.

In Guangxi, fixed-asset investment rose 26.9 percent year on year from January to March. Major projects coordinated and advanced at the regional level completed investment of 96.8 billion yuan, up 140 percent year on year; transportation construction completed investment of 48 billion yuan, completing 120 percent of the target task.

In Qinghai, as of the end of March, 247 major projects in the province had started or resumed construction in the first quarter, with a start/resumption rate of more than 90 percent. In particular, investment in the energy sector reached 7.815 billion yuan, exceeding the quarterly plan by 3.715 billion yuan and completing 190.6 percent of the first-quarter plan, up 41 percent year on year and accounting for nearly 30 percent of the full-year target task.

"Statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, fixed-asset investment was in a process of recovery growth. In particular, the growth rate of infrastructure investment was 4.1 percentage points higher than the overall investment level, providing important support for the stabilization and rebound of national fixed-asset investment," Wu Youhong, director of the Investment System and Policy Research Office of the Investment Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said in an interview with reporters. He pointed out that advancing major project construction is an important lever for expanding effective investment, and major projects in the infrastructure sector are also an area where government funds can relatively quickly produce the effect of "a small effort yielding a big result." The gradual recovery of infrastructure investment growth to pre-pandemic levels shows that localities and departments have achieved positive results in advancing major project construction, and will play a key role in promoting the continued recovery of overall fixed-asset investment this year.

Expanding effective investment and accelerating major project construction remain top priorities. Recently, many places have organized mobilization meetings for major projects to plan for expanding effective investment. On April 21, Guangxi held a meeting to coordinate major project construction and investment work across the region, proposing to coordinate and resolve prominent difficulties and bottlenecks in projects and to prepare the second batch of special bond plans for industrial parks as soon as possible, striving to issue them by the end of May; in energy, it proposed to deeply plan a batch of major energy projects and strive to start construction in the second quarter. Qinghai proposed to strengthen guarantees for factors such as land for major project construction and to accelerate the planning, reservation and packaging of a batch of major projects. Jiangxi proposed to focus on issues such as insufficiently optimized investment structure and a low proportion of livelihood input, further expand effective investment, and focus on shoring up weak areas in people's livelihoods.

"Overall investment is currently achieving recovery growth, but it should be noted that the recovery of investment across fields is uneven. Manufacturing investment has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, weak areas remain in infrastructure and public services, and there are incomparable factors such as the low investment base in the same period last year," Wu Youhong said.

To improve the effectiveness of major project investment, Wu Youhong suggested that the next step should focus on building a market-led endogenous growth mechanism for investment, improving investment quality and efficiency, and stimulating endogenous growth vitality. First, better leverage government investment in accordance with the law to create the necessary infrastructure and external environment for enterprise investment; second, strictly control project access, regulate market order, avoid low-level redundant construction in certain industries and fields, and explore the establishment of a risk prevention mechanism for major project investment; third, build a market-led endogenous growth mechanism for investment and make sustained efforts in areas such as relaxing access, policy support, the business environment and property rights protection to mobilize the enthusiasm of private investment.

Sun Chuanwang, a professor at the School of Economics of Xiamen University, told reporters that further improving the effectiveness of major project investment in the future mainly lies in two aspects. One is promoting consumption and benefiting people's livelihoods, ensuring that major project investment can effectively stimulate domestic demand, accelerate consumption upgrading, and adapt to, lead and create new demand with high-quality supply; the other is shoring up weak areas and enhancing staying power, effectively promoting structural adjustment, and taking efforts to stabilize the economic fundamentals as a long-term deployment for later growth, continuously injecting new momentum into high-quality economic development.