A person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said recently that it will further strengthen planning guidance for new infrastructure construction, improve the policy environment, and innovate related institutions. Insiders said that the new infrastructure investment plan is being accelerated and it is estimated that the investment scale will reach one trillion yuan this year. Relevant support policies may focus on efforts to help stabilize growth and restructure.
Policy intensive implementation
This year can be described as a "big year" for new infrastructure. Warm winds are blowing on the policy front, related support policies are intensive, and new infrastructure investment is in full swing everywhere.
The National Development and Reform Commission has repeatedly emphasized to speed up the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G networks and data centers. A person from the National Development and Reform Commission said that opinions on promoting high-quality infrastructure development have been reviewed and approved. In the next step, it is necessary to further strengthen the planning and guidance for the construction of new infrastructure, and to coordinate and promote the construction of more smart transportation, smart grid, and smart city projects.
On March 24th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on accelerating the development of 5G, proposing 18 measures including accelerating the progress of 5G network construction and increasing the support of base station site resources. At the end of February, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 11 departments jointly issued the "Smart Car Innovation and Development Strategy" to support smart transportation and smart city infrastructure construction projects.
According to incomplete statistics, at present, government work reports in 25 provinces and cities have emphasized new infrastructure. Shandong Province has recently issued the "Guidelines on Digital Infrastructure Construction in Shandong Province", which states that by the end of 2022, the province's digital infrastructure construction scale and development level will be among the highest in the country.
Increased funding support
From the perspective of funding, support for new infrastructure is increasing.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, as of March 20, special bonds of 1023.3 billion yuan were issued across the country, all of which were used for the construction of transportation facilities such as railways and rail transit, as well as major infrastructure projects in the fields of ecological protection, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, municipal and industrial parks .
Zhang Wenlang, chief macro analyst of Everbright Securities, said that the infrastructure investment that can be driven by the new infrastructure sector is about 800 billion to 100 billion yuan this year. Although the short-term total is not large, the significance of the logo cannot be ignored. Looking at the whole year, infrastructure as an important starting point for employment stabilization is encouraged by many policies such as the extension of the term of the local government's implicit debt resolution, the increase in the use of special debt for infrastructure construction, and the increase in policy-based financial annual credit. It rebounded in 2019, and the growth rate may be above 6%.
Strengthen overall planning and top-level design
The new infrastructure is accelerating, and it is urgent to establish and improve the policy mechanism.
An industry expert pointed out that at present, some areas of the new infrastructure, such as data centers, have become excessive. The next step is to plan and improve the environment, to prevent "bulging up" and repeated construction, and to avoid short-term investment bubbles.
The "New Infrastructure" Development White Paper recently released by Saidizhiku pointed out that at the policy level, overall planning and top-level design should be strengthened. It is recommended to formulate medium and long-term strategic plans and short-term action plans for the development of new infrastructure. According to regional characteristics and industry needs, make overall plans for the layout of new infrastructure areas and industries. It is suggested that the selection of pilot demonstration projects for innovative applications based on digital new infrastructure be carried out at the central, provincial and municipal levels. From the enterprise level, it is recommended to scientifically formulate the five-year development plan, three-year action plan, and annual work plan, and clarify the strategic development direction and target positioning of the enterprise.
