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China will step up financial support for new types of infrastructure project in a bid to stabilize investment and expand domestic demand and will make more efforts to achieve technological breakthroughs in key sectors to stablize supply chians and facilitate industrial transformation, the country’s top economic planner said on Monday.
A new batch of infrastructure projects will be launched soon, thanks to the implementation of the “policy-backed and development-oriented financial instruments” and the use of special re-loans and fiscal appropriations, which all target new types of infrastructure projects, Zhang Zhihua, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at a press conference.
New types of infrastructure refer to digital, smart and innovative projects, including 5G networks, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
China will strengthen weak links in infrastructure, continuously improve network project in medium- and small-sized cities in central and western China, support the application of new technologies such as 5G, AI and Big Data in people’s everyday life and fill the digital gap, promote improvement and upgrading of new-type infrastructure, said the NDRC.
The country will prioritize the construction of new-type infrastructure projects in the fields that can meet people’s urgent needs and those that can have notable support to the real economy, it said.
The application of new technologies in the the fields of energy and mining sectors is encouraged to build a safe, reliable and complete new infrastructure system, it added.
China’s internet infrastructure has rapidly improved over the past 10 years, smart infrastructure has been adopted by all walks of life and innovation infrastructure has seen continual optimization, Zhang said.
The length of China’s optical fiber networks grew by 2.7 times over the past decade, and the country established a national civil space infrastructure system comprised of satellite remote sensing, satellite broadcasting and the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, he said.
China’s centrally administered state-owned enterprises are increasing investment in new infrastructure, planning to invest in more than 1,300 new infrastructure projects during the 2021-25 period, with investment amounting to more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
China’s infrastructure investment grew 8.3% year over year in the first eight months of the year, 0.9 percentage points faster than that over the January-July period, according to China’s official data.