Investment is expected to continue to stabilize and improve (economic focus)
Core reading
As various policies and measures for stabilizing investment continue to be effective, the construction of major projects has accelerated and the investment growth rate has continued to pick up.
In August, investment in fixed assets nationwide increased by 8.4% year-on-year, maintaining positive growth for five consecutive months.
In the next step, further efforts will be made to stabilize investment and give full play to the key role of investment.
Investment plays a key role in stabilizing growth.
A few days ago, August economic data was released, and fixed asset investment maintained a recovery trend.
How to see the further narrowing of investment decline?
When will the cumulative growth rate of investment turn positive during the year?
How to stabilize foreign investment while stabilizing investment?
On September 16, the National Development and Reform Commission held a regular September press conference for an in-depth interpretation.
Investment growth is picking up month by month, maintaining positive growth for 5 consecutive months
From January to August this year, the national fixed asset investment fell by 0.3% year-on-year, and the rate of decline was 1.3, 2.8, and 15.8 percentage points smaller than that from January to July, the first half of the year, and the first quarter, respectively. The rate of investment decline was further narrowed, and the trend continued to rise.
"Since this year, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has caused a huge impact on China's investment, and the investment growth rate once saw a sharp decline. As various policies and measures for stabilizing investment continue to take effect, the recovery of major projects has accelerated, and the investment growth rate has rebounded month by month. In the second quarter, investment increased by 4.8%, an increase of 20.9 percentage points over the first quarter; investment increased by 6.7% in July and 8.4% in August, maintaining positive growth for five consecutive months,” said Meng Wei, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission.
At present, infrastructure investment has basically returned to the level of the same period last year.
In the first August of this year, infrastructure investment fell by 0.3% year-on-year, and the rate of decline narrowed by 0.7 percentage points from the previous July.
Among them, investment in the information transmission industry, which represents "new infrastructure", increased by 18.4%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points over the previous July.
While the investment growth rate has rebounded, the investment structure has also been continuously optimized.
The growth rate of investment in high-tech industries accelerated. From January to August, investment in high-tech industries increased by 8.2% year-on-year, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than that from January to July.
Among them, investment in high-tech manufacturing increased by 8.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 1.4 percentage points higher than in the previous July.
However, after the cumulative growth rate of industrial production, exports and other indicators has turned positive during the year, when the cumulative growth rate of investment in the year turns positive has become the focus of social attention.
"With the central budget for investment, special bonds, special treasury bonds for anti-epidemic funds and other funds successively released, the start of projects and the availability of funds continue to improve, and investment is expected to continue to stabilize and improve." Meng Wei said.
The data shows that the current leading indicators of investment continue to improve.
In the first eight months of this year, the planned total investment in newly-started projects increased by 12.1% year-on-year, and the trend of rapid growth remained unchanged.
Meng Wei introduced that in the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to adhere to the principle of capital, land and other elements following the project with relevant parties, and further play the key role of investment.
The first is to focus on the "two new and one heavy" areas to expand effective investment, focusing on the "three accelerations and two enhancements", that is, to speed up the construction of new infrastructure and accelerate the promotion of new towns focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of county urbanization. Accelerate the construction of major projects in the fields of transportation, water conservancy, and logistics infrastructure; supervise and guide localities to strengthen the reserve of major projects, strengthen land security for major construction projects, and promote the implementation of major projects as soon as possible.
The second is to make good use of funds around improving the efficiency of fund use.
Urge and guide local governments to speed up the implementation of investment plans and project construction within the central budget, and urge local governments to speed up the issuance and use of special bonds.
Third, pay more attention to mobilizing the enthusiasm of private investment.
It is necessary to further implement various policies and measures to stimulate the vitality of private investment, support private investment to participate in shortcomings and new infrastructure construction, and fully mobilize the enthusiasm of private investment.
The long-term confidence of foreign-funded enterprises in investing and operating in China has not changed
Since the beginning of this year, affected by the epidemic, global cross-border direct investment has fallen sharply.
In this context, my country has achieved significant results in the overall promotion of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and the use of foreign capital has gradually stabilized.
Meng Wei introduced that from January to August this year, my country's actual utilization of foreign capital was 89 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3%. In particular, since April, the rate of decline in foreign capital utilization has narrowed month by month, and the overall utilization of foreign capital has been better than expected.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai recently released a report stating that most companies continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market. 78.6% of the interviewed companies said they would not transfer their investment in China, an increase of 5.1 percentage points from last year. On September 10, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China issued a report stating that the European Union Corporate investment in China is generally stable, with only 11% of the surveyed companies considering relocating or changing their investment plans, which is close to the lowest level in 10 years.
"These data further show that the confidence of foreign companies in investing and operating in China for a long time has not changed."
To stabilize foreign investment, we still need to continue to deepen reform and opening up and optimize the business environment.
Meng Wei said that in the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will focus on four tasks in accordance with the decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee.
Grasp the implementation of the negative list.
Compared with the 2019 version, the 2020 version of the negative list of foreign investment access has been further reduced, and the opening up of the service industry, manufacturing industry and agriculture has been improved.
Among them, the national negative list was reduced from 40 to 33.
Expand the "Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment."
At present, the National Development and Reform Commission is stepping up the revision of the "Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment", which will further expand the scope of encouraging foreign investment, so that foreign investment projects in more fields can enjoy relevant preferential policies.
Do a good job in guaranteeing services for foreign investment projects.
Since April this year, in response to the prominent international travel issues reported by foreign-funded enterprises during the epidemic prevention and control period, my country has established a charter flight mechanism for foreign personnel from major foreign-funded projects. Up to now, more than 10,000 foreign personnel have chartered flights and entered the country through this mechanism. Provided convenience for the smooth implementation of the project.
Continuously optimize the foreign investment environment.
The National Development and Reform Commission will continue to clean up, revise, and abolish laws, regulations, and normative documents that are inconsistent with the Foreign Investment Law to ensure that foreign investment promotion, protection, management and other regulations can be better detailed.
The growth rate of fixed asset investment in the western region is 3.7% higher than the national average
While stabilizing investment, we must also guard against risks.
From January to July this year, fixed asset investment in western my country increased by 2.1%, 3.7 percentage points higher than the national average.
Why can the western region achieve a relatively high investment growth rate?
Meng Wei introduced that in the first July of this year, investment in 10 of the 12 western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) was on a growth trend, of which Xinjiang and Tibet had investment growth rates of 25.5% and 12.7%, ranking the top two in the country. The growth rate of investment in Gansu, Yunnan and Qinghai all exceeded 2.0%.
"These data reflect that the western region's overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development is powerful and effective, and positive results have been achieved in promoting the resumption of work and production, especially in grasping projects and promoting investment." Meng Wei said that in the 20 years since the development of the western region, the western region's economy Social development has achieved remarkable results, and investment has played an important role in it.
At present, the level of development of infrastructure and basic public services in some areas in the western region still has a big gap compared with developed areas. The objective needs and endogenous driving forces to make up for shortcomings and promote development are still obvious within a certain period of time.
In response to these problems, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to support the western region to increase its efforts to make up for shortcomings in the areas of infrastructure and people’s livelihood security, give full play to the leveraging and traction role of investment in the central budget, and accelerate the construction of major projects and improve the foundation. The accessibility of facilities and the level of equalization of basic public services.
"On the other hand, we will comprehensively consider the financial resources of the western region and other factors, guide local governments to do their best and do what they can, strictly prevent local government debt risks, and prevent the flooding of floods, the semi-lazi project, and the large-scale demolition and construction of the western region. The growth rate of regional investment is stable within a reasonable range." Meng Wei said.