China achieves widely recognized results in investment in 2024: official

China

China achieves widely recognized results in investment in 2024: official

2025-01-03 17:07 Last Updated At：01-04 03:37

China achieved widely recognized results in investment work in 2024, said a senior official on Friday, vowing more targeted measures in 2025 to improve investment efficiency and give full play to the key role of investment in the national economy.

Speaking at a press conference, Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, noted the key role of investment work in stabilizing economic growth, adjusting economic structure, cultivating growth drivers, delivering benefits to the people and preventing risks.

In the past 10 years, gross capital formation has contributed more than 40 percent on average to economic growth, according to Zhao.

Last year, government investment continued to play a leading and amplifying role, and private investment gained vitality from a variety of measures taken by the government, Zhao told reporters.

"In 2024, the total investment in projects supported by the central government budget exceeded 1.3 trillion yuan (about 178 billion U.S. dollars), and the total investment in projects supported by local government special-purpose bonds exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan. Government investment played a very good leveraging role," Zhao said.

"We proactively recommended projects to private capital, guiding and supporting private enterprises to participate in major projects such as nuclear power projects. We issued 28 infrastructure REITs (real estate investment trusts) and implemented 734 PPP (public-private partnership) projects, involving a total investment of more than 1.5 trillion yuan," he said.

China has built a pool of key private investment projects and adopted policies to provide stronger financial support for them, according to Zhao.

The implementation of the 102 key projects listed in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) has been accelerated, with significant progress made in the lunar exploration program, the clean energy base project on the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, the Guxian project on the Yellow River, and the expansion and reconstruction of congested sections of national highway main lines, Zhao said.

"We issued ultra-long special treasury bonds to support projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas, mainly focusing on major events and difficulties in building China into a great country and advancing national rejuvenation. To date, basically all projects supported by the 700 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024 have started construction, with a total investment of more than 1.2 trillion yuan. Besides, a list of projects supported by 100 billion yuan of bonds in 2025 has been released in advance," Zhao said.

In 2025, the commission will work with various localities and departments to implement the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference held last month, make more targeted efforts to improve investment efficiency and give full play to the key role of investment, Zhao said.

"First, we will pursue high-quality progress in projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas. In 2025, we will increase ultra-long special treasury bonds, expand the range of support for projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas, and further raise the proportion of treasury bonds in project investment. Through the coordination of project construction and policy support, we will make sure the designated projects are truly those for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas. In the meantime, we will strive to make more solid progress and innovative breakthroughs in improving project investment and financing mechanisms and project operation and maintenance mechanisms," he said.

"Second, we will ensure the high efficiency of government investment. We will appropriately increase investment in central government budget and optimize the range of support, focusing on projects in public areas, where the market fail to effectively allocate resources, so as to continuously shore up weak links, adjust the economic structure and deliver benefits to the people," Zhao said.

Third, in order to better mobilize social investment, China will improve the long-term mechanism for private enterprises to participate in major national projects and continue to recommend projects to private capital, which can broaden the development space for private investment, according to Zhao.

China will also select key private investment projects to deepen investment and loan linkage cooperation, implement more PPP projects, and increase support for the expansion of the infrastructure REITs market to help private enterprises solve financing problems, Zhao said.

South Africans rally in solidarity with Venezuela against U.S. aggression

Demonstrators from civil groups, labor unions and other communities in South Africa rallied outside the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg on Friday, denouncing U.S. unilateral military actions against Venezuela and voicing solidarity with the Latin American nation.

They gathered along the street in front of the consulate, carrying banners that read "Hands Off Venezuela" and "Stop Imperialism," chanting slogans against U.S. hegemony and aggression.

"We are here to protest the U.S. threats to global peace, the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro Moros of Venezuela, which was done in violation of international law, in violation of territorial integrity of Venezuela, of course, in violation of national sovereignty of Venezuela," said Solly Afrika Mapaila, general secretary of the South African Communist Party.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, the United States carried out a military strike against Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, taking them to the United States.

Some protesters said the crisis in Venezuela shows how geopolitical struggles have direct and immediate effects on ordinary people's lives.

"Venezuela belongs to the people of Venezuela and nobody else. For American belligerent and colonial aggression, quite frankly, is not just something very distant. Never before have questions of geopolitics been of immediate and direct relevance and direct and immediate impacts on the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, as you are seeing today," said Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA).

Placards at the rally blended English and Spanish slogans, while some demonstrators sang liberation songs from South Africa's anti-apartheid era to express solidarity. Passing motorists slowed in front of the consulate, honking in support.

Defying the summer heat, the crowd remained spirited and resolute, their chants echoing along the street in a clear call for an end to foreign interference and respect for Venezuela's sovereignty.