Railway investment will reach 500 billion yuan in infrastructure underpinning

On July 30, the Chongqing Municipal Government submitted a report on the implementation of the National Economic and Social Development Plan of Chongqing from January to June 2019, which revealed that the Chongqing-Wanzhou and Chongqing-Kunming high-speed railways were scheduled to start construction within this year, while the Chongqing-West high-speed railways were striving to start construction within this year.

This is one aspect of Accelerating Railway Investment in the second half of this year.

Data released by China National Railway Group (hereinafter referred to as the "State Railway Group") show that in the first half of the year, the fixed assets investment of the national railway was 322.01 billion yuan, and 40% of the total investment of 800 billion yuan in the whole year was completed. In the second half, the investment of the national railway still needs to be completed at 478 billion yuan. Railway investment may take on a high trend.

Railway investment is an important grasp for steady growth and development. Times Weekly reporters combed the public information of local governments and found that in the second half of this year, the hot spots of railway investment were mainly high-speed railway projects in the central and Western regions, such as Yuwan high-speed railway, Yukun high-speed railway, Sichuan-Tibet railway and so on, while taking into account the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and other Eastern regions. Ma Delong, an assistant researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission's Integrated Transport Research Institute, told TIME Weekly that the high-speed rail projects were mainly concentrated in the east of Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, which was relatively profitable. "But with the improvement of the layout, the investment in the central and Western railways has become a new growth point in recent years." The inter-city railway in the eastern part of China has also become a hot spot of railway investment in recent years. According to the analysis of

Madelung, the inter-city railway is mainly invested by local governments, and the eastern region is financially strong, with a large population and guaranteed passenger flow. "For example, in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, the urbanization rate is relatively high, and the distance between each town is relatively short, and the demand for economic and trade exchanges is very strong. However, the construction of high-speed rail in these areas is earlier, the standard is relatively low, and some needs are still unsatisfactory." Madelung said. The high-speed railway project in the western region has the characteristics of long mileage, large investment and difficult construction.

Among them, the Yuwan High-speed Railway is an inter-city railway from the main urban area of Chongqing to Wanzhou District, which is scheduled to start in December; the Chongqing-Kunming High-speed Railway from Chongqing to Kunming is scheduled to start in September; and the Chongqing-West High-speed Railway from Chongqing to Xi'an is scheduled to complete the approval of the feasibility study report by the end of this year and realize the early start-up section.

From the investment amount, the Chongqing-Kunming high-speed railway is 698 kilometers in length, the design speed is 350 kilometers/hour, and the estimated investment is about 117 billion yuan. The Chongqing-West High-speed Railway is about 700 kilometers long, with a total investment of about 100 billion yuan, calculated at a cost of 130 million yuan per kilometer. At the same time, Sichuan-Tibet Railway, which has attracted much attention, will start soon. Peng Tsinghua, Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, said on June 17 that construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway would start soon. As the second "Tianlu" to Tibet after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Sichuan-Tibet Railway is one of the trunk railways in southwestern China, with a total length of about 1700 kilometers and a total investment of about 270 billion yuan. In the second half of the year, railway construction in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the eastern part of the Yangtze River Delta, with the exception of the western part, will take into account. On July 22, Tianjin Mayor Zhang Guoqing said that important progress had been made in the integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transportation. (Tianjin) Tianxiong (An) Intercity Railway has been incorporated into the national plan. The new airport connecting line between Tianjin and Beijing will start in the second half of the year. On July 22, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that it had approved the feasibility study reports of two railway projects, namely, the Puyang-Jinan section of the newly built Zhengzhou-Jinan railway and the Heze-Lankao section of the South Shandong Intercity Railway, with a total investment of 51.88 billion yuan.

On August 1, Shandong Province issued a document pointing out that in the second half of the year, 10 projects under construction such as the South Shandong High-speed Railway should be accelerated, and five high-speed rail projects such as Jizheng and Heze-Lankao sections of the South Shandong High-speed Railway should be started. In addition, Jiangsu Province proposed to ensure the construction of Ninghuai Railway in the second half of the year and strive for the construction of high-speed railway along the North River. Anhui Province said it would speed up the construction of a number of projects such as Chihuang, Xuanji and Hexin Railway as soon as possible. Liu Zhe, deputy dean of Wanbo New Economic Research Institute, made an analysis to TIME Weekly. Current railway investment "mainly focuses on high-speed railway, especially inter-city railway, serving high-quality economic development, facilitating and speeding up the transportation of urban agglomerations; regionally, it mainly focuses on the central and Western regions, especially the western regions." Now, we will make up for the shortcomings and provide infrastructure support for industrial undertaking in the western region.

Capital construction investment is expected to recover in the second half of the year

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee meeting held on July 30, when deploying the second half of the year's economic work, pointed out that the current downward pressure of the domestic economy is increasing, and after the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee mentioned "six stability" in December last year, it raised "six stability". China Railway Group held a meeting of leading cadres in mid-July. Lu Dongfu, chairman of the board of directors, stressed that we should ensure the completion of the annual investment task of 800 billion yuan and make contributions to the realization of "six stability".

As the "Ding Hai Shen Needle" of domestic fixed assets investment, since 2014, railway investment has exceeded 800 billion yuan for five consecutive years, with investment of 8.08 billion yuan, 8.238 billion yuan, 8.15 billion yuan, 8.11 billion yuan and 80.28 billion yuan respectively. According to Madelung's analysis of Times Weekly, the construction of transportation infrastructure represented by railway can not only stimulate investment, but also create demand spontaneously and stimulate residents'consumption through the improvement of transportation. "Although some railway projects themselves can not make a big profit, they have a very big driving effect on the consumption of residents along the line. This consumption is not directly reflected in the field of transportation, but in social consumer goods, services and other aspects.

Times Weekly reporter combed the data of railway investment in recent years and found that most of the annual railway investment showed a "low before and high after" trend, of which June and September.