Infrastructure Investment Boost For The Economy

秦珊珊

The indexes of both manufacturing and non-manufactur-ing industries fell below the boom-or-bust line in March，in-dicating the need for stronger policy support to expand do-mestic demand and stabilize growth.

No wonder the National Development and Reform Com-mission，the country ，s top economic policy planner，urged all relevant departments to ensure that all of the 102 national key infrastructure projects be carried out as planned.

Given the mounting downward pressure to the economy，governments at various levels should appropriately advance their infrastructure projects so as to stimulate demand.

They should increase their investment in infrastructure construction of the following three kinds at least.

The first are key projects concerning people's liveli-hoods，such as water conservancy，transportation and energy projects，particularly those that appeared in the 14th Five- Year Plan （2021-25）.

The second kind are infrastructure projects that are key to promoting high- quality development，such as those relat-ed to the security and stability o￡supply chains，industrial upgrading and the improvement of core competitiveness. Dig-ital infrastructure projects，and projects related to artificial intelligence，the industrial internet and the internet of things should gain the full support of governments.

The third kind are projects that are conducive to narrow-ing the regional development gaps and promoting quality ur-banization，such as those boosting the integrated development of Beijing，Tianjin and Hebei province，the Yangtze River Economic Belt，the Guangdong- Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta region.

中國制造業和非制造業3月份景氣度均降至枯榮線以下，表明需要調整宏觀政策，加大擴內需、穩增長的力度。

國家發展和改革委員會要求各相關部門，要確保“十四五”規劃102項重大工程每一項任務落地見效。

在經濟下行壓力加大的情況下，各級政府應適當推進基礎設施建設，刺激需求。

至少要加大對以下三種基礎設施建設的投入。

第一類是關系民生的重點項目，如水利、交通和能源，尤其是“十四五”規劃中出現的項目。

第二類是對促進高質量發展至關重要的基礎設施項目，如與供應鏈安全穩定、產業升級和提高核心競爭力有關的項目。數字基礎設施項目以及與人工智能、工業互聯網和物聯網相關的項目應得到政府的全力支持。

第三類是有利于縮小區域發展差距、推進新型城鎮化建設的項目，如推進京津冀協同發展、長江經濟帶發展、粵港澳大灣區建設、長三角一體化發展的項目。

To avoid the increase of expenditure from aggravating local governments' debts，they should be allowed to issue more special bonds for these projects.

At the same time，it is good to see that the central gov-ernment will increase its transfer payments to local govern-ments by 18 percent this year compared with the previous year，the largest increase in recent years，nearly 9.8 trillion yuan （$1.54 trillion），which will help ease local govern-ments' spending pressure.

With infrastructure investment to be intensified，the progress of projects will be accelerated，which will stimulate the expansion of effective demand and play a strong support-ing role for economic growth.

為了緩解地方財政壓力，可以更多地發放地方政府專項債券。

同時，今年中央對地方轉移支付規模增長18%，這是近年來最大增幅，近9.8萬億元，這將有助于緩解地方政府的支出壓力。

加大基礎設施投資力度，加快項目進度，刺激有效需求擴大，將對經濟增長起到有力支撐作用。