Infrastructure investment boost for the economy

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

No wonder the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic policy planner, recently 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 livelihoods, 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 related to the security and stability of supply chains, industrial upgrading and the improvement of core competitiveness. Digital 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 narrowing the regional development gaps and promoting quality urbanization, 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.

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 government will increase its transfer payments to local governments 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 governments' 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 supporting role for economic growth.