China’s top 10 infrastructure projects to rescue its slowing economy
- The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved 27 infrastructure projects since the start of 2018, totalling US$219.43 billion
- Projects in Shanghai, Jiangsu province, Wuhan, Guangdong province, Suzhou, Changchun, Shaanxi province, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Guangxi province
To counter China’s rapidly slowing economic growth, the Chinese government has returned to the policy playbook that worked well in the past: spending money on large infrastructure projects.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, has accelerated its review process and approved 27 infrastructure projects with a total expected investment of 1.48 trillion yuan (US$219.43 billion) since the start of 2018, of which 16 worth around 1.1 trillion yuan were approved since the start of November.
Concerns were raised over a return to the debt-fuelled infrastructure investment binge that caused Beijing to halt approval of such projects in 2017, however, the need to stabilise the economy, which Beijing’s highest decision-making body set as the government’s top priority in July, took precedent.
We review the top 10 infrastructure projects by expected investment value that China has approved since the start of 2018, each costing over 50 billion yuan (US$7.41 billion).
The total investment for the 10 projects is projected at 1.158 trillion yuan over the next six years, or about 78 per cent of all newly approved infrastructure investment since the start of 2018.
