Economic growth continued to pick up and improved quarter by quarter

On the morning of October 14, the Information Office of the Provincial Government held the first press conference on the theme of "Promoting High-quality Development and Deepening All-round Transformation". The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission said: Since the beginning of this year, the economic growth rate of our province has continued to pick up and improve quarter by quarter, and the growth rate in the second quarter has increased by 1.5 percentage points compared with the first quarter. In the third quarter, a number of indicators continued to improve, the growth rate of the industrial and coal industries above the designated size narrowed, the growth rate of general public budget revenue turned from negative to positive, and the key people's livelihood and well-being continued to improve.

Policy dividends improve market demand

Since the beginning of this year, our province has fully released policy dividends, the effective market demand has gradually improved, and the "two-fold" and "two-new" policies have been effective, striving for ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to support more than 12.7 billion yuan.

Up to now, the "two-fold" major projects such as the Shanxi sub-project of the "Three North Project" have been fully started, the "soft construction" task of related supporting reforms has been steadily implemented, the consumption of automobiles and home appliances has been leveraged by about 6 billion yuan, and the investment in equipment and tools has contributed 44.4% to the investment growth of the province. The 60.9 billion yuan of local government special bonds won this year were all issued in September, and 35.6 billion yuan has been spent, forming a strong guarantee for the province's major events and people's livelihood expenditures.

A number of major engineering projects have been completed and put into operation, and effective investment has been continuously expanded. The Guxian Water Conservancy Project, which has been planned for many years, has officially started and entered the construction stage, and a number of major transportation infrastructure projects such as Dayuan High-speed Railway, Xiongxin High-speed Railway, and the third phase reconstruction and expansion of Taiyuan Airport have been accelerated, and a number of advanced manufacturing projects have been completed and put into operation. Since the first quarter of this year, private investment has continued to maintain positive growth (1.4% from January to August), reversing the continuous decline last year. From January to August, industrial investment increased by 9.6 percent, and investment in equipment manufacturing and high-tech industries increased by 40.2 percent and 23.9 percent respectively, becoming the main force driving investment.

The energy supply is greener and more diversified

Since the beginning of this year, the energy supply of our province has become more green and diversified. Intelligent coal mining leads the country, more than 50% of coal production capacity has achieved intelligent mining, 30 green mining pilot demonstration coal mines have been built, and advanced coal production capacity accounts for nearly 82%, and coal output has ranked first in the country for four consecutive years. Jindian is the second in the country, with 157.6 billion kWh of electricity delivered in 2023, covering 23 provinces. The development of new energy and clean energy has accelerated in an all-round way, with installed capacity accounting for 48% at the end of August this year, an increase of 14.1 percentage points over 2019. Unconventional natural gas production reached a record high, with 14.59 billion cubic meters in 2023, more than double that of 2019. For the first time, hydrogen heavy-duty trucks have achieved pure commercial operation in medium and long distances. The development of geothermal energy and biomass energy has been accelerated.

In the first three years of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the province's energy intensity decreased by 10.9%, ranking among the highest in the country. Green manufacturing has been accelerated, and 115 national green factories have been built. A total of 65.65 million kilowatts of coal-fired power units have been completed, and 100% of the existing coal-fired power units have met the gas-grade emission standards. All the iron and steel enterprises in production have completed the transformation of ultra-low emissions. The advanced production capacity of the coking industry accounts for more than 96%. All new buildings in the town have reached green building standards. The power utilization level of the computing center is the sixth in the country. With the rapid development of green transportation, the country's first integrated project of cutting slope treatment and photovoltaic power generation has been completed, and the "highway + photovoltaic" model has been fully promoted. Zhuangshang Village in Yuncheng City became the first "Demonstration Village of China's Zero-carbon Villages and Towns". The country's first provincial carbon inclusive promotion platform "Sanjin Green Life" has been built.

Our province has also issued the mainland's first provincial-level local regulations on the promotion of clean and efficient use of coal. A major breakthrough has been made in the reform of the system and mechanism of coalbed methane exploration. The · Xinhua coking coal price index has become a national price vane. The Shanxi Industrial Service Base of Dalian Commodity Exchange was inaugurated, and the country's first coking coal futures railway platform delivery warehouse landed in Shanxi. It has taken the lead in carrying out the pilot project of co-mining of coal and aluminum, and has taken firm steps in the co-mining mechanism of associated resources such as coal and bauxite. The construction of national climate investment and financing pilot projects in Taiyuan and Changzhi has been progressing in an orderly manner.

Energy openness and cooperation continue to expand, and our province has implemented a number of green and low-carbon development demonstration projects. The Belt and Road energy partnership continues to deepen. The export momentum of "new three" products such as electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products is rapid, of which the total export value of solar cells from January to August increased by 225.3% year-on-year.

"Trade-in" boosts both investment and consumption

In July, the state introduced a series of policies to support large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods. Our province has issued the "Specific Measures for Shanxi Province to Support Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" to fully deploy the province's efforts to support the "two new" work. The province's automobiles, home appliances, home improvement, electric bicycles, operating trucks, new energy buses, agricultural machinery and other 7 areas of the implementation rules for the old for the new have all been introduced, laying a solid foundation for the promotion of various work.

In terms of equipment renewal, our province has successfully won the first batch of 2.04 billion yuan of national debt funds for equipment renewal, which has been fully distributed to all cities and relevant departments, and the second batch of national debt funds will also be issued soon. In terms of trade-in of consumer goods, our province has reasonably determined the scale of funds, and allocated 3.5 billion yuan of treasury bond funds and 391 million yuan of provincial matching funds arranged by the state to various fields. At present, the funds have been distributed to the cities in two batches. At present, all departments and cities have strengthened their support for the "two new" policies to fully launch and promote the "two new" preferential treatment directly to enterprises and consumers. In terms of car trade-in, the capital subsidy standard has been greatly increased, with a maximum of 20,000 yuan for scrapping and renewal, and a maximum of 18,000 yuan for replacement and renewal. In terms of the replacement of household appliances, on the basis of the 8 categories of products determined by the state, new smart home appliances such as dishwashers and sweeping robots have been added, and the scope of support has been expanded to 15 categories. In terms of scrapping and renewal of commercial trucks, the scope of scrapping has been expanded from diesel trucks operating in China III and below to diesel trucks operating in China IV, and the scope of renewal has been expanded from fuel trucks to methanol and gas trucks.

In terms of expanding investment, the equipment renewal policy continues to advance, which effectively mobilizes the enthusiasm of enterprises to update all kinds of equipment. From January to August, the province's investment in the purchase of equipment and tools increased by 5.7% year-on-year, 4.1 percentage points higher than the province's fixed asset investment, and the contribution rate to the growth of total investment reached 44.4%, an increase of 9.5 percentage points from January to July. In terms of promoting consumption, the accelerated implementation of the subsidy policy for the trade-in of consumer goods has effectively stimulated the consumption potential and allowed real money to reach consumers directly. From January to August, the retail sales of new energy vehicles increased by 27.6% year-on-year, of which the total growth in July and August was 36.3%. From January to August, the retail sales of household appliances above designated size increased by 3% year-on-year, 2.6 percentage points faster than the retail sales of all consumer goods above designated size, of which August increased by 10.7% year-on-year. According to the data of the provincial industry association, from September 14th to October 7th, the sales of refrigerators, washing machines, TVs and air conditioners of Suning Tesco and Tianyuan Commerce and Trade in our province increased by more than 120% year-on-year, and the growth rate was very obvious, which intuitively reflected the significant effect of the "two new" policies.

Shanxi Evening News reporter Zhang Lei

(Editor in charge: Li Lin)