In the first three months, the number of large-scale projects launched in China surged by 41.8% year-on-year, with ground being broken on 182 major projects each valued at more than CNY1 billion. The total investment in these projects reached CNY340 billion, up 39.1% year-on-year. Transportation projects led the construction boom, including key projects such as the Linyi section of the Weifang-Suqian High-Speed Railway in Shandong province and the G322 expressway project in Jiangxi province. There was also a strong momentum in high-tech investment in the first quarter. Anhui province launched a project to build a production line for advanced display screens, with an investment of CNY2 billion. Zhejiang province began constructing a science park for artificial intelligence core components.
The number of smaller projects valued below CNY5 million also grew, with 17,000 projects launched, a 4.8% year-on-year increase. These smaller projects, often focusing on improving people's livelihoods, involved a combined investment of nearly CNY28 billion, up 7.2% year-on-year.
These major projects are driving China's economy from both the demand and supply sides, Wang Peng, Associate Research Fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. On the demand side, infrastructure and industrial investments directly stimulate the construction and manufacturing sectors, while creating ripple effects across supply chains. On the supply side, cutting-edge technology projects accelerate industrial upgrading, and livelihood-related projects help unlock new consumption potential,” Wang explained. He added that these projects also generate direct employment and indirectly support the services sector, boosting household incomes and consumer confidence to promote broad-based economic growth.
China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) rose 4.2% year-on-year in the first quarter, 1 percentage point higher than the full-year growth rate of 2024. The investment totaled CNY10.32 trillion during the period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Investment in infrastructure construction rose 5.8%, while manufacturing investment rose by 9.1%, according to data from the NBS, as reported by the Global Times.
