China has sped up the construction of highway infrastructure. From January to September, construction began on 299 new expressway and national and provincial highway projects with a total length of 9,645 kilometers and CNY882 billion in investment, Gu Zhifeng, Deputy Director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, said. Among the projects, 34 stretching 2,132 km were started in September, and account for 43.7% of the total road infrastructure investment in the first three quarters of the year. The projects include an underwater tunnel in Jiangsu province, as well as expressways in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. China built 9,756 km of expressways and national and provincial highways from January to September, with a total investment of CNY557 billion. Last month, several highways and expressways – extending 1,441 km and accounting for CNY125 billion in investment – opened to traffic.
Investment in fixed transportation assets saw a 6.3% growth year-on-year in the first three quarters, maintaining a high increase, to stabilize economic growth and create new space for investment, Gu added. From January to August, investment in transportation-related fixed assets amounted to CNY2.34 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%. Among them, CNY176 billion was invested in building highways, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%.
Outside China, the China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau (CSCEC5B) plans to grab greater market share in new types of infrastructure in economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. It is expanding its construction activity such as building rail networks, airports, highways, bridges and ports in overseas markets, especially in BRI-related economies. Based in Changsha, Hunan province, the company has 45,000 employees and 26 branches abroad. It has built projects in more than 20 countries, including Algeria, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore. In 2021, the value of newly signed contracts exceeded CNY10 billion in overseas markets. Over 700 subsidiaries of nearly 70 central SOEs invested a total of CNY400 billion in “new infrastructure” in 2021, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). These central SOEs plan to invest in more than 1,300 “new infrastructure” projects during the 2021-25 period, with investment amounting to over CNY10 trillion, the China Daily reports.
