The construction site of the Science Hall project in the Western (Chongqing) Science City taken on January 10 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xiao
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's New Year kick-off campaign to make a "good start" to the economy
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhang Yujie, Zhou Wenqi, Ding Le
At the beginning of the new year, at the construction site of the T3 terminal project of the reconstruction and expansion project of Changsha Airport in Hunan Province, tower cranes were lined with long arms waving, engineering vehicles were shuttling back and forth, and more than 1,200 builders were fighting hard. Overlooking from a high place, the centripetal shape of the five-finger corridor composed of the waiting hall and the finger corridor has appeared, and the construction site is changing with each passing day.
The Changsha Airport Reconstruction and Expansion Project is a national "14th Five-Year Plan" transportation power construction project, of which the T3 terminal covers an area of about 500,000 square meters, which can meet the annual passenger throughput of 40 million passengers.
"The construction of the terminal building has entered the sprint stage of the full capping of the main structure of the main building, and the main building of the terminal building in the north area of Hall F is expected to complete the full capping of the main structure before the Lunar New Year. Li Xiaocong, the project leader of the construction party China Construction Fifth Bureau, said.
Since the beginning of 2024, all parts of China have been working hard and all walks of life have accelerated. At the same time, all localities have actively introduced new policies and measures to help the economy achieve a "good start".
"At the beginning of this year, government departments in various parts of China have shown strong enthusiasm and initiative in implementing the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference. Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the pace of construction of a series of major projects has accelerated, and the measures aimed at stabilizing investment, consumption and growth have been accelerated, indicating that local governments are actively playing a role in promoting the continuation of the economy and consolidating the upward trend in 2023.
The construction of major projects is the "ballast stone" for stable economic operation. On January 2, the construction of the first batch of new projects in Shenzhen in 2024 started. A total of 205 projects were started this time, distributed in major science and technology and industrial projects, infrastructure projects, people's livelihood projects and other fields; on the 3rd, 11 major projects in Hunan were started in a centralized manner, involving major industries and infrastructure fields, with a total investment of 87.2 billion yuan.
From the three Hunan and four rivers to the loess plateau, from the land of Nanyue to the important land of Gyeonggi...... Many major projects started one after another after New Year's Day, setting off a boom in project construction in the New Year.
"The intensive layout of major projects in many places reflects the continuous rebound in the construction heat and investment intensity of China's engineering projects, laying a solid foundation for economic development in the new year. Yang Zhusong, an associate researcher at the Institute of National Conditions of Tsinghua University, said.
On January 1, tourists played ice cars at the Summer Palace Ice Rink. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua
The New Year's Day consumer market is a window to observe China's economy at the beginning of the year. According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the three-day holiday, there were 135 million domestic tourism trips nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 155.3%, an increase of 9.4% over the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis, and a domestic tourism revenue of 79.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 200.7% and an increase of 5.6% over the same period in 2019.
According to the "2024 New Year's Eve Travel Report" released by Ctrip, the number of domestic New Year's Eve travel orders increased by 168% year-on-year, and the per capita spending of tourists has increased to varying degrees in terms of tourism consumption such as high-end resort hotels and customized tours.
"As the beginning of tourism consumption in 2024, various forms of New Year's Eve activities and consumption promotion policies launched in various places during the New Year's Day holiday continue to drive the development of the tourism economy and lay a good foundation for the continuous recovery of the consumer market throughout the year. Zhang Dawei, director of public affairs of Trip.com Group, said.
Behind the "good start" of the consumer market, it is inseparable from various forms of measures to promote consumption in various places. Beijing, Hunan, Guangdong and other places have improved the consumption experience by launching the New Year's Eve consumption season, issuing consumption vouchers, reducing or exempting tickets, and carrying out themed consumption promotion activities, so as to better meet the diversified and high-quality consumption needs of the people.
"The series of consumption promotion activities organized by local organizations have provided consumers with richer consumption choices through a combination of online and offline methods, and further released consumer demand. Zhang Dawei said that the continuous release of tourism consumption enthusiasm will inevitably bring stimulating effects to many industries such as catering, entertainment, transportation, commerce and trade.
Stabilizing investment is an important starting point for stabilizing the economy. Previously, various provinces have successively held economic work conferences to make arrangements for investment in 2024, among which "expanding effective investment" and "stimulating the vitality of private investment" have become the key points for planning investment directions in many places.
A few days ago, Henan issued the "Several Policies and Measures to Promote the "Good Start" of the Economy in the First Quarter of 2024", introducing 17 policy measures, and the "Several Measures for Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Increasing the Attraction of Foreign Investment in Guangzhou" was officially issued and implemented a few days ago, proposing 12 policy measures from four aspects: high-quality attraction and utilization of foreign investment, protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment, increasing support for foreign investment, and innovating the working mechanism for foreign investment promotion, so as to continuously enhance the confidence and expectation of foreign investment in Guangzhou.
On January 3, at the Chishui Port Wharf in the Lingang Economic Zone of Wuzhou, Guangxi, workers operate equipment to carry out loading and unloading operations on the wharf (drone photo). Xinhua News Agency (photo by He Huawen)
In Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Park, the construction site of ExxonMobil's Huizhou ethylene project, with a total investment of 10 billion US dollars, stands tall and high, and construction vehicles come and go in an orderly manner. There are tens of thousands of workers on the site every day, and they carry out high-altitude work, electrical work, hoisting work, painting and other division of labor in an orderly manner.
This is one of the representative projects of foreign investment in Guangdong. At present, the project is progressing smoothly as planned, some devices are about to enter the commissioning stage, and some supporting projects have been put into use. "We are looking forward to the completion of the project on schedule. ExxonMobil Global Projects Executive Director Ivis is confident in the company's market prospects in China.
"Although China's economy is still facing some difficulties and challenges, the basic trend of economic recovery and long-term improvement has not changed, and the factors and conditions supporting high-quality development have continued to increase. In the context of intensified counter-cyclical adjustment of macro policies, China is expected to continue to promote the qualitative and effective improvement of the economy and reasonable quantitative growth in 2024. Yang Zhusong said.