Balancing industrial upgrading and people's livelihood protection, major projects across various regions are moving forward tirelessly.

By Han Yu

On March 23, this year’s Tianjin municipal-level key construction projects, with a total investment of 320 million yuan, featuring the General Technology Tianjin Densen Company’s thin-wall intelligent project, were fully launched. It is reported that the project focuses on tackling key core technologies in the high-end equipment manufacturing sector and is committed to the R&D, pilot verification, and industrialization application of intelligent forming processes for complex thin-wall components. After the project is completed, it will significantly enhance the company’s independent innovation capability in manufacturing complex structural parts with high precision and high performance.

The above-mentioned project is a snapshot of how major projects are being densely deployed and advanced in different regions. Since 2026, various regions have continued to exert efforts to expand effective investment, and all construction work has been steadily implemented. Experts interviewed generally believe that accelerating the implementation of major projects in various regions has played a role in stabilizing investment and benefiting people’s livelihoods, laying a solid foundation for high-quality economic development. At the same time, the project layout takes into account both upgrading industries and ensuring people’s livelihoods; the investment structure has been continuously optimized, and funding support has been continuously strengthened.

Large in scale, optimized in structure, fast in implementation

Since this year began, various regions have been making dense deployments for the construction of major projects. For example, on March 22, the Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission released a notice stating that recently Yunnan issued the first batch of 2026 provincial-level major projects list and the “top priority” project list (hereinafter referred to as the “two lists”). The “two lists” include 1,677 provincial-level major projects in total, with total investment of 2.57 trillion yuan. Among them, there are 52 “top priority” projects with annual planned investment exceeding 1 billion yuan, with total investment of 891.4 billion yuan.

On March 19, the Jiangxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the “Notice on the Deployment of the 2026 Plan for Provincial Key Construction Projects,” clarifying the goal to “fully advance the implementation of provincial key construction projects to accelerate.” This year, Jiangxi’s key construction projects include 486 projects, with total investment of 1.1364 trillion yuan and annual planned investment of 264.7 billion yuan.

In Shaanxi, key projects in areas such as transportation, water conservancy, energy, and housing and urban-rural development are being advanced in full swing. It is understood that this year Shaanxi has arranged more than 3,400 provincial and municipal key projects, with annual planned investment of more than 680 billion yuan. Among them, more than 2,000 projects are planned to start construction as new projects, more than 1,400 are ongoing projects, and 640 projects have been designated as provincial-level key projects.

“Since this year began, major project construction in various regions has shown distinct characteristics, including large scale, optimized structure, fast implementation, and strong synergy.” Yuan Shuai, Deputy Director of the Investment Department of the China Institute for Urban Development, said in an interview with Securities Daily reporters. Based on the data disclosed by Yunnan, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, and other places, it shows that these major projects not only remain high in number, but their total investment has also reached the trillion-yuan scale, which is expected to generate a very strong scale effect.

“Since this year began, major projects in various regions have shown a momentum characterized by early starts, fast progress, new structural features, and strong力度.” Zhu Huarlei, Senior Investment Consultant at Shaanxi Jufeng Investment Information Co., Ltd., also told reporters. These major projects can leverage investment across upstream and downstream industrial chains, stimulate the vitality of private capital, provide strong support for stabilizing investment, and inject sustained momentum into industrial upgrading, improvements to infrastructure, and betterment of people’s livelihoods, thereby helping support high-quality economic development.

Emphasizing industrial investment direction

Securities Daily reporter noticed that this year’s investment directions for major projects in various regions also show new characteristics.

For example, the aforementioned “two lists” released by Yunnan emphasize the direction of actively investing in industry and private investment. There are 907 enterprise investment projects included, accounting for 54%; among them, 365 private enterprise investment projects with total investment of 288.8 billion yuan. There are 929 industrial projects included, accounting for 55%; among them, 690 industrial projects with total investment of 694.9 billion yuan. At the same time, the “two lists” also strengthen the concept of “investing in people.” A total of 365 major people-benefit livelihood projects under the “investing in people” category have been included in the lists, with total investment of 155.5 billion yuan. They cover key areas such as urban renewal, affordable housing and resettlement projects, construction and renovation of urban underground utility networks, social programs, and ecological and environmental protection.

Among Jiangxi’s 486 key construction projects, there are 476 implemented projects and 10 pre-planned projects. The projects cover four major areas: infrastructure, industrial development, social and people’s livelihood, and ecological and environmental protection. From the perspective of layout, these projects not only focus on strengthening weak links in traditional infrastructure such as transportation and energy, but also highlight the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G and computing power. They further expand leading industries such as electronic information, new energy, and non-ferrous metals, and cultivate future industries such as hydrogen energy, solid-state batteries, and third-generation semiconductors.

“Major projects in 2026 show new highlights in terms of investment structure and direction: ‘new-quality productive forces-led, and deep integration of green and intelligent development.’ The investment focus is accelerating its shift from traditional infrastructure toward ‘future industries’ represented by computing power centers for artificial intelligence and the like.” Zhu Huarlei said.

“Judging from the investment structure and direction, this year, major projects in multiple regions have revealed a new highlight of a two-way tilt toward ‘industry-driven’ and ‘people’s livelihood deepening.’” Yuan Shuai said. The leading position of industrial investment becomes increasingly prominent. For example, in Yunnan, industrial projects account for as much as 55%, indicating that the investment logic has shifted from the past relying on infrastructure-driven momentum to industrial upgrading that improves total factor productivity. The large share of investment in industrial projects will enhance the region’s endogenous economic动力 by filling and strengthening industrial chains. At the same time, “investing in people” has also become an important feature of structural optimization.

It is worth mentioning that the力度 of financial support for advancing local major projects is also increasing. It is understood that Shaanxi has already secured more than 18 billion yuan in central policy-based funds. Among them, “Two Priority” funds exceed 4 billion yuan, “Two New” funds are 5 billion yuan, central budgeted investment is 4 billion yuan, and an additional 3 billion yuan has been newly deployed in the second batch of new policy-based financial instruments.

Yuan Shuai said it can be seen that the precision in the use of funds has been significantly enhanced. Shaanxi’s efforts to secure “Two Priority” funds, “Two New” funds, and new policy-based financial instruments, among others, demonstrate that the investment direction is precisely aligned with national strategies. This project advancement system—guided by government investment, supported by multi-party funding, and covering across fields—provides a stable动力 source for the year-round economic operation. It is expected that a structural layout that balances economic benefits and social well-being, traditional drivers and new-quality productive forces, will form a new pattern of investment growth this year.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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