Opinion

 

1. Promoting economic growth with expanded effective investment

 

Investment plays a key role in stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, nurturing momentum, benefiting people's livelihoods, and preventing risks. The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and comprehensively expand domestic demand; moderately increase investment within the central budget; strengthen the coordination between fiscal and financial institutions, and effectively drive social investment through government investment.

 

2. Cultivating new growth drivers through technological innovation

 

At the beginning of the new year, a series of technological innovations have been exciting. For example, DeepSeek has recently been making waves around the world; a group of humanoid robots danced the Yangko, a traditional folk dance, on this year’s Spring Festival gala; and "Ne Zha 2" has empowered China's film industry with innovative technology. All in all, new quality productive forces have demonstrated strong driving force and support for high-quality development.

 

Policy 

 

1. With the recent approval of the Territorial Space Plan in Wuhan (2021–2035), the territorial space plans for all megacities have now been approved by the State Council. This marks the completion of the spatial blueprint for the future development of China's key cities, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. 

 

2. Cities such as Beijing, Changsha, and Xiamen have optimized policies for housing provident fund. The policy adjustments include increasing loan limits, supporting home purchases in other cities, optimizing withdrawal of the fund in renting home, and making it accessible to flexible employment personnel.  

 

3. To empower the private sector, the National Development and Reform Commission pledged to further remove market access barriers, revise the market access negative list for private enterprises in a timely manner, and encourage greater private sector participation in major national projects and programs.

 

Data

 

1. According to the monitoring business data, during the "2025 National Online New Year's Goods Festival", from January 7 to February 5, the daily average online retail sales in China increased by 6.2 percent year-on-year, achieving a good start for online consumption in 2025.

 

2. According to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the total number of offshore drilling wells in China exceeded the 1000 mark for the first time in 2024.

 

3. According to the information released by the China Machinery Industry Federation, as of the end of 2024, there were 132,000 enterprises above designated size in the machinery industry, an increase of 11,000 from the previous year.

 

4. A large fixed-wing drone loaded with fresh lamb took off from Yuyang Mahe Airport in Yulin, Shaanxi on April 16. After a 2-hour and 47-minute flight, it landed smoothly at Lantian Airport in Xi'an. This marks the successful maiden flight along the intercity low-altitude logistics route for large unmanned aerial vehicles from Yulin to Xi'an.

 

5. According to the Ministry of Commerce, driven by trades-in policy, related industries have maintained a rapid growth momentum. Since the beginning of this year, the national scrap car recycling volume has increased by about 35 percent year-on-year, and the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles have grown by over 20 percent year-on-year.

 

6. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the actual use of foreign investment in the manufacturing industry in 2024 exceeded RMB 220 billion, and the proportion of actual use of foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing reached 11.7 percent.

 

7. Data shows that in 2024, the GDP growth rates of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei reached 5.2 percent, 5.1 percent, and 5.4 percent respectively, all higher than the national average, with a total regional economic output of RMB 11.5 trillion.

 

8. According to Shanghai Customs, in January, the container throughput of Shanghai Port exceeded 5 million TEUs, creating a historical high in monthly throughput. Among them, Yangshan Port's throughput of 2.53 million TEUs accounted for over 50 percent.

 

9. The latest data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shows that China's foreign exchange market has remained stable and orderly this year. In January, banks settled USD 181.5 billion in foreign exchange and sold USD 226.8 billion in foreign exchange.

 

10. The Ministry of Finance issued this year's first batch of renminbi-denominated treasury bonds in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on February 19. The scale of the bonds was RMB 12.5 billion (about USD 1.74 billion).