Box 4: Progress on Major Infrastructure Projects

Railways	Ÿ Construction began on the Mt. Shergyla tunnel, Kangding No. 2 tunnel, and a mega bridge over the Daduhe River on the Ya’an-Nyingchi section of the Chengdu-Lhasa Railway. Ÿ Construction began on the Chengdu-Dazhou-Wanzhou, Chongqing-Wanzhou, and Wuhan-Yichang sections of the high-speed railway along the Yangtze River. Ÿ Construction of 14 projects for combined rail-water transportation facilities along the Yangtze River was accelerated. Ÿ Inter-city railway construction was accelerated in major city clusters such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Ÿ Fixed-asset railway investment totaled 781.9 billion yuan, and an additional 4,933 kilometers of rail lines entered service over the year.
Highways	Ÿ Capacity upgrading construction proceeded on heavily congested sections of expressways such as those between Beijing and Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei, Shenyang and Haikou, and Lanzhou and Haikou. Ÿ Construction was accelerated on unfinished sections of national expressways, including on the G5515 between Zhangjiajie and Nanchong, the G0611 between Zhangye and Wenchuan, the G4012 between Liyang and Ningde, the G59 between Hohhot and Beihai, the G3W between Dezhou and Shangrao, the G4216 between Chengdu and Lijiang, the G7611 between Duyun and Shangri-La, and the G6911 between Ankang and Laifeng.
Waterways	Ÿ Inland waterway infrastructure was strengthened. Steady progress was made in the project to improve the Wuhan-Anqing six-meter-deep waterway on the Yangtze, in the Yangtze to Huai River water diversion project, and in the project to improve the Grade III waterway on the Zhejiang section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. A project was launched to improve the waterway between Chaotianmen and Fuling in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, and phase one of the project to improve the Nancao waterway at the Yangtze estuary was completed and put into trial operation. Ÿ Construction of coastal port facilities was accelerated. Phase two of the project for a 300,000-ton-class shipping channel at the Lianyungang Port, and the expansion and renovation projects for a channel of the same class at the Zhanjiang Port made steady progress. The project to broaden the Guangzhou Port deepwater channel was completed.
Airports	Ÿ Yulin, Wulong, and Yutian airports were completed and opened to traffic, increasing the number of civil airports in service across China to 241. Ÿ Construction progressed swiftly on the Tianfu Airport in Chengdu, and on the expansion and renovation of the Guiyang and Urumqi airports. Ÿ Projects were launched to expand and renovate hub airports including those in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Lanzhou, and Xining, and to build regional airports such as those in Xingtai and Ruijin.
Postal and Telecoms Facilities	Ÿ Steady progress was made in improving infrastructure for universal postal services in western and rural areas as part of the initiative to extend direct postal service to all administrative villages. 1,025 postal outlets in 21 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government were either renovated or rebuilt. Ÿ New telecoms infrastructure was built, increasing the total number of operational 5G base stations to above 700,000 and raising 4G and fiber optic network administrative village coverage to over 98%.
Water Conservancy Projects	Ÿ Progress was achieved on 150 major water conservancy projects, including projects to control floods and mitigate natural disasters and to ensure better allocation of water resources, water-saving irrigation, water supply, protection and restoration of water ecosystems, and smart water conservation. Ÿ A total of 45 large water conservancy projects were launched, including phase one of the Sichuan Tingzikou irrigation area project and the water resources allocation project in western Chongqing. Ÿ More than one trillion yuan was invested in water projects currently under construction.
Energy Projects	Ÿ Nuclear power: The Wudongde Hydropower Station and Unit 5 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant began to generate electricity. Unit 5 of the Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant—China’s first nuclear unit with the Hualong-1 reactor, was connected to the power grid for the first time. Ÿ Electricity: The UHVDC lines transmitting electricity from Wudongde to Guangdong and Guangxi, and between Qinghai and Henan, began operation. Ÿ Natural gas: The middle section of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline was completed, and construction began on the southern section. The Qinghai-Nanjing pipeline was put into operation. The capacity of major underground gas storage facilities such as the one in Hutubi County, Xinjiang reached 14.3 billion cubic meters in 2020.

 

3) We accelerated the establishment of a modern distribution system.

To advance the development of high-quality, modern logistics, we made plans to build another 22 national logistics hubs. To create an enabling environment for the distribution of fresh agricultural products, we made plans to build 17 national pivotal cold-chain logistics bases which will serve areas producing local specialty agricultural products and agricultural product distribution centers. We also moved faster to create a modern logistics operation system that incorporates logistics gateways, hubs, and networks. To introduce new models for logistics services, we encouraged the healthy and well-regulated development of new forms of Internet Plus freight transportation businesses, and promoted full integration between logistics and manufacturing to boost their innovative development. To lower costs and increase efficiency in the distribution process, we made coordinated efforts to bring down both technology costs and government-imposed transaction costs.

6. Continuous progress was made in supply-side structural reform, and new headway was made in industrial restructuring.

We kept the focus of efforts in economic development on the real economy, and steadily improved the quality, performance, and core competitiveness of our economy.

1) We made solid progress in promoting high-quality development of manufacturing.

We launched projects to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, implemented pilot and demonstration programs for fostering advanced manufacturing clusters, and made effective use of the investment fund for advanced manufacturing. We pushed forward integrated development between next-generation information technology and manufacturing, and continued to improve industrial internet platforms in order to facilitate the development of manufacturing. We encouraged enterprises to transform themselves into smart, eco-friendly, and quality service providers, and established a number of high-quality smart manufacturing demonstration plants and green manufacturing demonstration projects. These initiatives have propelled safe, green, intensive, and efficient development in traditional industries.

We continued to consolidate our achievements in cutting overcapacity and improved the distribution of major productive forces. By approving larger mining projects, suspending smaller ones, and increasing the number of efficient and responsible producers while eliminating those not up to standard, we slashed outdated production capacity last year by more than 100 million tons, thereby optimizing China’s coal production capacity. In the iron and steel industry, we refined the measures for production capacity replacement and registration, accomplished all the targets for cutting crude steel production capacity during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and encouraged enterprise acquisitions and reorganizations. We optimized the planning for the petrochemical industry, pressing ahead with major projects while advancing the relocation and renovation of hazardous chemical plants in densely populated urban areas.

We promoted the high-quality development of strategic mineral resources such as rare earths, and improved the regulation of resource exploitation. We also boosted the innovative development of intelligent vehicles and successfully organized a series of activities for the 2020 Chinese Brands Day.

 

2) We pushed forward the development of the modern service industry.

In endeavoring to develop a quality, efficient, and competitive service industry, we formulated the guidelines on advancing reform, opening up, and the development of the service sector. We launched the first group of trials for integrated development between advanced manufacturing and modern services, and stimulated development in producer services, including industrial generic technologies R&D, industrial design, integration management, general contracting, lifecycle management, inspection, testing, and certification.

3) We effectively ensured food security and the adequate market supply of agricultural and sideline products.

We maintained stability in grain output, which exceeded 650 million metric tons for the sixth year in a row. This ensures both our basic self-sufficiency in cereal grains and absolute food security.

Based on a more precise analysis of supply and demand, we further improved the grain reserves regulation system. In an effort to refine the system for coordinating grain production, purchase, storage, processing, and sales, we optimized the types and locations of stockpiled grain varieties, established a dynamic mechanism for adjusting the size of government stockpiles, supported the construction of 234 grain storage, logistics, and emergency response facilities, and steadfastly increased grain storage capacity and distribution efficiency in order to systematically reduce grain loss in all links of the post-production process.

With regard to pork supplies, we tracked, studied, and assessed hog market developments, built up infrastructure for animal epidemic prevention and control, and implemented routine preventative measures against African swine fever. We facilitated the strong recovery of hog production and released frozen pork from central government reserves at key times of the year, thus effectively ensuring the supply of pork and other essential commodities. An adequate quantity of vegetables and fruits is available on the market, indicating a marked improvement in our capacity to provide a balanced food supply.

4) We further enhanced China’s capacity to safeguard energy security.

We vigorously developed systems for the production, supply, storage, and sales of coal, electricity, petroleum, and natural gas. We improved China’s ability to ensure self-sufficiency in those mineral resources which are in short supply, increased the reserves, storage capacity and output of petroleum and natural gas, and stepped up work on major electricity projects. Major power grids across the country were largely connected up. The capacity for west-to-east electricity transmission reached 260 million kilowatts. China’s installed capacity for wind power, solar power, and hydropower remained the world’s largest, with its installed capacity for electricity generated from non-fossil energy rising to 980 million kilowatts. We also proceeded with the transformation of power systems to make them more flexible, and raised the utilization rate of wind power, photovoltaic power, and hydropower to over 96%.