Major engineering projects spark a “rush-to-completion” trend, and transportation investment is fully ramped up.

Economic Reference News

The Longtan Yangtze River Bridge, currently under construction, is located between the Nanjing Yangtze River Fourth Bridge and the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge. It connects Yizheng City in Yangzhou to the north and Nanjing City and Jurong City in Zhenjiang to the south. The bridge features six lanes in each direction, with a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and has a total length of 4,925 meters. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Lei.

　　“Currently, guided by the principle of moderate forward-looking planning, we are accelerating a host of major strategic projects—including the Sichuan-Tibet Railway and its supporting road infrastructure, the major corridor for transporting goods from Xinjiang into Tibet, the Western Land-Sea New Channel (Pinglu) Canal Project, the container terminal on the northern side of Xiaoyangshan, and the port and comprehensive transportation hub facilities in Ningbo-Zhoushan—providing robust support and guarantees for stabilizing investment, expanding domestic demand, boosting employment, safeguarding people’s livelihoods, and underpinning the overall macroeconomic framework of our national economy,” said Xu Chengguang, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport, at the recently held thematic press conference series “China Over the Past Decade.”

　　Transportation is the “vanguard” of development. In recent years, China’s fixed-asset investment in transportation has remained consistently high, reaching a record high of 3.6 trillion yuan last year. Over the past decade, cumulative fixed-asset investment in railways has exceeded 7 trillion yuan, while cumulative fixed-asset investment in civil aviation has reached 800 billion yuan.

　　According to Xu Chengguang, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, in line with the goals and tasks set forth in the "Outline for Building a Transportation Powerhouse" and the "Outline for the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network Planning," we will prioritize networking, filling gaps in the network, and strengthening supply chains as key priorities for construction, thereby accelerating the development of a modern, high-quality, national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network. This includes building a highly efficient backbone network comprising "6 axes, 7 corridors, and 8 channels"; constructing a multi-level, integrated comprehensive transportation hub system; and ensuring smooth, efficient connections among economic regions. We will also enhance the level of transportation infrastructure in key areas, bolster our capacity to support national strategies, and further improve transportation conditions in old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority regions, border areas, and rural regions. Moreover, we will build a safe and reliable logistics supply chain network to ensure smooth domestic transportation, promote the development of an international logistics supply chain system, and safeguard the stability of industrial and supply chains. We will accelerate the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of transportation facilities, strengthen the construction of green transportation infrastructure, and advance the deep integration and synergistic development of transportation facilities with energy, water resources, information, and other related infrastructures.

　　This year is a crucial one for fully implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the role of transportation as a stabilizer for investment and growth has become even more prominent. Data show that from January to April this year, China’s fixed-asset investment in transportation exceeded 910 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.7%.

　　A reporter from the Economic Reference News noted that recently, the Ministry of Transport has held a series of meetings to make arrangements and call for increased investment in transportation infrastructure. Taking major projects as the driving force, the ministry is focusing on advancing the construction of 102 national key projects outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan that involve transportation. Localities are being urged to seize the “golden period” for construction and, while ensuring the quality of projects, to promptly ramp up physical work volumes.

　　A new round of rural road construction and renovation will also be launched. Xu Chengguang revealed that the next step will be to actively and steadily advance the “Four Good Rural Roads” initiative. Building on the early completion of the originally scheduled annual targets for rural roads, a new round of rural road construction and renovation will be initiated. The plan is to complete an additional 30,000 kilometers of newly built and renovated rural roads, implement safety and life protection projects on another 30,000 kilometers of rural roads, and renovate 3,000 dangerous bridges on rural roads. Combined with the original targets, it is expected that this year as a whole, we will complete 150,000 kilometers of newly built and renovated rural roads, implement safety and life protection projects on 80,000 kilometers of rural roads, and renovate 8,000 dangerous bridges on rural roads.

　　A series of supporting measures at the local level have also been implemented intensively, fully ramping up efforts to stabilize investment. For example, on June 10, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Transportation and the Department of Finance jointly issued the “Several Incentive Policies for Promoting Investment and Stabilizing Growth through Transportation Projects in 2022,” which focuses on four key stages of highway and waterway construction projects: pre-project preparation, project commencement, project investment, and practitioner creditworthiness. The policy introduces ten incentive measures, with individual projects eligible for rewards of up to 3 million yuan.

　　According to the “Several Measures by Guizhou Province to Further Accelerate the Construction of Major Projects and Expand Effective Investment,” this year Guizhou will focus on advancing and improving the construction of its integrated transportation system. It aims to ensure that transportation investment reaches 67 billion yuan in the first half of the year and 145 billion yuan for the entire year. Construction will commence on the Guiyang-Anshun and Anshun-Panzhou sections of the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway expansion project, as well as accelerate the progress of the Zunyi-Chongqing section expansion project of the Lanhai Expressway.