MKS sports East China's Jiangsu Province. Photo: VCG" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-12-23/ea5c380f-978e-4d0c-8e81-fe9c60c08f9b.jpeg" />

Industrial robots are operating on an intelligent production line in a smart manufacturing enterprise in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. Photo: VCG

After work in the Year of the Snake officially started on Wednesday, Chinese localities began to roll out massive investment projects across a wide range of sectors, including those related to new quality productive forces, which an economist said will better support the economy in 2025.

On Thursday, Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, saw the simultaneous launch of 235 projects with a total estimated investment of 87.89 billion yuan ($12.05 billion), according to the city's official WeChat account.

For the whole year, Changsha has earmarked 659 projects focusing on building a modern industrial system, creating a global research and development hub, enhancing urban functionality and pursuing key livelihood projects.

Also on Thursday, officials from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality said that they will roll out three to-do lists on key reform measures, key projects and key results in the new year. They have targeted the completion of 100 billion yuan of investment within the first quarter, according to a government press conference.

Work will be accelerated on a second high-speed railway linking Chongqing and Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan Province, and a natural gas production base with an annual capacity of over 100 billion cubic meters, according to Chongqing officials. The building of industrial clusters around the low-altitude economy and artificial intelligence is among the prioritized goals.

Among the many new projects that started or were announced across Chinese localities, there was a strong concentration of semiconductor plants, according to a report by the Shanghai Securities News on Thursday.

Since December, nearly 70 major semiconductor projects have been announced across the country, with several dozen more entering the construction, topping-out or production stages, the report said.

Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Thursday that China's investment in infrastructure will show continuity from a trend set in 2024.

In the face of external uncertainties, expanding infrastructure construction and major projects will remain one of the important measures taken by the government to stabilize the economy in 2025, Cong said.

With more funding, local governments will demonstrate greater tenacity in promoting infrastructure and major project construction, and with richer experience and more effective management, localities will better leverage the multiplier effect of infrastructure spending on economic growth, Cong said.

China's investment growth is expected to kick off strongly in 2025, bolstered by early project approvals and debt relief measures for local governments, the Xinhua News Agency reported in January, citing an official from a think tank under the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.

As part of China's clear-cut fiscal policy in 2025, the size of the fiscal deficit will increase significantly, Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min told a press conference on January 10. 

Liao said that considering the increasing size of China's GDP, total fiscal expenditure will be further expanded, and countercyclical adjustment efforts will also be stepped up to provide solid support for the sustained recovery of the economy, according to Xinhua.

The latest developments came on top of projects that commenced or were announced on Wednesday.

At the Xiong'an New Area, in North China's Hebei Province, some 100 kilometers away from Beijing, 70 projects totaling 53.7 billion yuan in investment commenced on Wednesday. These projects involve improving urban functions, fostering the convergence of high-tech industrial clusters and speeding up the formation of new quality productive forces, according to a statement on the local government's website.

Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday that judging from various media reports, local major projects in 2025 are focused on transportation, water conservancy, energy, computing power, new materials production bases and new-energy bases, including photovoltaic power plants.

To translate these projects into actual productivity, the progress of construction will be accelerated to ensure the projects' earlier operation, Dong said, adding that in the first quarter, these major engineering projects will increasingly incorporate new technologies, new industries and new scenarios to support the country's consumption growth and consumption upgrades.